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Provocation? NATO Conducts Military Maneuvers 300 Yards From Russia's Border

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/26/2015 22:52 -0400

Submitted by Daniel McAdams via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

When a Russian bomber flew over international waters some 25 miles off the southwest tip of England last week, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon called Russia "a real and present danger." The UK government scrambled jet fighters to meet the Russian aircraft as a show of force.

Said Secretary Fallon of the incident, "NATO has to be ready for any kind of aggression from Russia, whatever form it takes." He added that, "NATO is getting ready," warning particularly that Russia may soon move to invade the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Reading the feverish Twitter feed of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Phil Breedlove, one would get the impression that NATO is already at war with Russia. Fighter jets sit menacingly atop aircraft carriers as the General beams about NATO member countries' commitment to contribute to the fight.

Our @NATO allies are stepping up, making significant contributions. #NATO pic.twitter.com/hTtHNvi0Bm

— Phil Breedlove (@PMBreedlove) February 25, 2015

The message is clear: Russia is about to attack! NATO has, for no understandable reason, found itself in Russia's crosshairs. NATO cannot figure out how it is that Russia could possibly feel threatened by its actions, which, unlike Russia's are not in the slightest provocative.

Russian military plane over international waters 25 miles from the UK coast is "real and present danger" to NATO. Yet...

Yet yesterday US combat vehicles conducted a military parade and show of military force in Estonia just 300 yards -- yards! -- from the Russian border. That is just over 60 miles from downtown St. Petersburg.

Here is dramatic video of NATO's military display just three football fields from Russia:

This is not a provocation, we are to believe. This is not a "real and present danger" to Russia. NATO is exempt from the rules it imposes on its enemies.

In the Guardian's review of a new book by Politics professor George Sakwa, the current fallout from a near quarter century of post-Cold War NATO policies is perfectly captured:

The hawks in the Clinton administration ignored all this, Bush abandoned the anti-ballistic missile treaty and put rockets close to Russia’s borders, and now a decade later, after Russia’s angry reaction to provocations in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine today, we have what Sakwa rightly calls a “fateful geographical paradox: that Nato exists to manage the risks created by its existence”.

That line bears repeating: "Nato exists to manage the risks created by its existence."

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Fri, 02/27/2015 - 04:26 | 5834606 zvzzt

What surprizes me somewhat (or quite a bit actually) is that Germany is tolerating such behaviour of NATO. Perhaps they are contractually bound, but I recon the last country that wants to get involved in any war at all - and certainly Russia is Germany.

Problem remains, the fixed-aircraft carrier named Britain needs to fly over them if things go wrong (in a conventional way). So even if by some magic Germany can remain aloof to the situation, they'll get involved left and right.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 05:31 | 5834639 e_u_r_o

LMAO. Estonia celebrated independence day on the 24th you morons. This is m,achines gathering for practise parade conducted at night

All credibility lost ZH, freaking hilarious news

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 06:32 | 5834679 Joe A

So why exactly does NATO has to join Estonia's independence day celebration? Perhaps Estonia is not so independent after all???

NATO couldn't care less about anybody's independence cause the alliance is an entity by itself that serves as the expeditionary force of the Western financial system. This was just a display of force -or perhaps un-force)

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 06:38 | 5834682 peggleball

Or they simply don't view NATO as something completely negative. Perhaps even something mostly postive.

I know, difficult to imagine for someone brainwashed nonstop by asinine pro-russian comments at zerohedge.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 07:12 | 5834709 Joe A

You obviously have not looked at my postings. I don't particularly like Mr. Putin or his clique of people in Russia but I don't like the Western narrative on the situation in Ukraine either.

I can understand why countries like Estonia have signed up to NATO while it was the agreement that NATO would not expand eastwards. Russia made clear that Georgia and Ukraine to them were red lines that should not be crossed. In 2008, Georgia and NATO got a piece of their medicine. Countries like Ukraine should have learned from that: Georgia expected that NATO would come to their rescue but NATO was not going to risk going to war with Russia over Georgia. Same thing with Ukraine: no direct involvement but soft support. Now that being said, NATO's red line are the countries aligned with the organisation but I don't think we should risk an all out war in Europe with Russia just in order to save America's and dollar's world dominance.

Putin will not blink his eyes to send his soldiers to the front. Russians are hardened. We in the West we are not. Don't have any doubt: Estonia will be one of the first countries to be wiped out in a direct confrontation.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 07:43 | 5834738 Dollar Bill Hiccup

Maybe Nato should annex St. Petersburg. It was never considered to be truly Russian. It's creation was an attempt to lean westward. Stalin was not unhappy that it was decimated in WWII. And then, no one would worry about an invasion of the Baltics. See? Problem solved.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 09:05 | 5834842 KashNCarry

Defeat in Debaltsevo: Kiev's Stalingrad

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 09:14 | 5834861 Meta_Consciousness

If those practices for war are provocations towards Russia, what are they when they're done in American cities with no warning?

Sort of like Obama sending air force one ( the plane, not air force designation) to buzz Manhattan?

Oh wait, the real war isn't against Russia.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 09:15 | 5834863 semperfi

Where's the UN ? Why aren't they trying to "make peace" in Ukraine? Hmmm?

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 09:20 | 5834876 peggleball

Good luck getting something through the veto council.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 09:26 | 5834887 madcows

but russia flying their bombers into allied airspace is not a provocation?

this is just NATO doing some retaliatory saber rattling.

nothing to see here/

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 10:10 | 5835007 roadhazard

"US military vehicles 300 yards from Russia." LOL, Let me know when US Troops are driving them. There are US vehicles driving around the world daily with no US troops in them. Give me a fuckin' break.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 10:41 | 5835146 Mike Honcho

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization - time to rename this conglomerate of freedom enforcers or create a government dictionary because their terms regularly do not translate.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 11:45 | 5835455 Two dogs

"Our @NATO allies are stepping up, making significant contributions. pic.twitter.com/hTtHNvi0Bm"

With Harriers? Which of the NATO allies would that be, then?

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 14:39 | 5836142 gcjohns1971

THE DEATH OF SKEPTICISM.

Has it occurred to anyone that there are a lot of people who could round up half a dozen ZIL's, a few BTRs and BMP's, then put a GIGANTIC Russian flag on top of them and drive them around a traffic circle at night claiming it was proof of an invasion?

Unless you recognized the exact street in the video you would not even be able to tell whether or not it was filmed where claimed.

I don't know what this video shows. And neither do you.

But I know that only the handful of 8-wheeled vehicles even REMOTELY looked like US equipment...and there is a lot of very similar-looking equipment in the world, including the BTR.

When you believe what you are told rather than using your eyes and mind, you make yourself someone else's slave.

Pick a side if you must. But surrender your mind and you are no longer a human being.

Fri, 02/27/2015 - 16:43 | 5836594 corsair