NATO is refocusing their efforts toward Russia in light of Vladimir Putin’s invasion and takeover of Crimea last year.
NATO wants to prevent Russia from doing the same thing to other former Soviet Republics.
“We have reasons to believe that Russia views the Baltic region as one of NATO’s most vulnerable areas, a place where NATO’s resolve can be tested,” said Sven Mikser, Estonia’s defense minister.
“If the Russians sense a window of opportunity, they will use it to their advantage,” said Estonia’s chief of defense, Lt. Gen. Riho Terras. “We must make sure there’s no room for miscalculation.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has been traveling to the capitals of NATO member nations to talk about the refocus on Russia. He has pledged the U.S. to give weapons and loan commandos to a new NATO rapid reaction force.
The U.S. will also place heavy weapons and tanks in the Baltics and Eastern Europe for the first time.
NATO is facing issues with member nations such as Germany, Italy and France not being in favor of going to war with Russia should an invasion of Estonia or other former Soviet republics take place.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday that the U.S. will send weapons, aircraft and troops as needed to NATO’s new rapid reaction force. The force will defend Europe in the event of an aggressive move by Russia or ISIS.
President Obama made the commitment last year during a NATO summit but Carter is revealing the details of the plan.
“We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia,” Carter said at Atlantik Brucke, a Berlin think tank that focuses on the German-U.S. relationship. “We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake: we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us. We will stand up to Russia’s actions and their attempts to re-establish a Soviet-era sphere of influence.”
The U.S. will provide intelligence and surveillance capabilities, special operations forces, transport aircraft and a range of weapons from bombers and fighters to ship-based missiles. A large ground force is not part of the U.S. commitment.
Carter is attending his first NATO meeting as Defense Secretary and plans to bring a two-pronged approach to NATO’s needs: the first is a strong defense against Russia in an attempt to stop them from establishing a Soviet-era influence on the region while partnering with Russia to fight Islamic terrorism.
U.S. officials are watching the economic situation in Greece with concern that it might lead to a situation where Russia could gain influence over a NATO member.
Greece, on the verge of bankruptcy, has been struggling with members of the European Union regarding debts and loans to cover costs. If Greece defaults, Russia could swoop in with economic help and turn that nation against the West.
“You can easily see how geopolitically this would be a gift to Russia,” says Sebastian Mallaby at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You do not want Europe to have to deal with a Greece that is a member of NATO but which all of a sudden hates the West and is cozying up to Russia.”
President Obama and his administration have been quietly talking with German leaders about getting the EU to resolve the standoff with Greece. Apparently the EU’s issues with Ukraine have factored into the Greece discussions.
The Greek prime minister traveled to Russia last week to meet with Russian president Putin.
Russia has been working to weaken the EU’s support for sanctions which require all 28 member nations to approve before going into effect. If Greece remains in the EU but receives major support from Russia, they could block further sanctions.
“We still believe that Europe remains united against Russia and what they’re doing,” says John Kirby, state department spokesman, when asked about the potential impact of a Greek default.
“I think coming out of the G7 you saw a lot of unity in Europe for continued sanctions against Russia and the possibility for increased sanctions to further isolate Russia.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his nation would be adding more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) to their nuclear arsenal.
“More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defense systems will be added to the make-up of the nuclear arsenal this year,” Putin, flanked by army officers, said in a speech at an arms fair west of Moscow.
The announcement comes a day after NATO members along the Russian border agreed to place U.S. tanks and heavy weapons in their countries. The move is being called “the most aggressive act since the cold war” by analysts.
The actions are seen in response to the current tension in Ukraine and Russia’s unwillingness to back down from their efforts to destabilize that nation.
ICBMs have a maximum range of 3,400 miles. Putin did not state what kind of ICBMs would be placed into the Russia arsenal.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia was “saber rattling” and attempting to further degrade an already dangerous situation.
Seeking the Lord for a word for the new year is always a very serious pursuit and this year is even more crucial as we see the “red lights of prophecy” flashing all around us and God’s plan unfolding at breakneck speed. The Lord began to speak to me while we were in Israel, and the word that I give to you I sincerely pray will resonate with your spirit and cause you to be more prepared for these times we see looming on the horizon. Remember that in the midst of all the turmoil there is a promise of His Return and that is cause for great rejoicing! Continue reading →
Two Russian bombers carried out a series of practice cruise missile attacks on the United States last week during the NATO summit in Wales.
The bombers were identified as Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers. They flew over Iceland, Greenland and dipped over northeast Canada. The flights approached was is called a “launch box”, the optimum point for firing a nuclear weapon at the United States.
The test runs come as a Russian general is calling for the country to change their policies to make pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the United States and Europe the default position. Gen. Yuri Yakubov has been calling on Russia to classify the U.S. and NATO as “enemies” and that they need to “hash out conditions” where Russia could launch missiles.
The Russian aircraft stayed just outside of the North American Air Defense Identification Zone so the U.S. and Canadian Air Force did not send jets to intercept.
NATO officials held a summit last week to discuss Russia and their hostile actions toward Ukraine.
Pro-Russian terrorists attempting to overthrow the Ukrainian government have shot down a Malaysian Airlines flight that was flying over the Donetsk region of the country.
The flight, MH17, was headed to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam according to airline officials. The plane was flying at 33,000 feet when it was shot down using a Russian made ground-to-air missile system.
The Australian government reported many on the plane were researchers and scientists on their way to a United Nations conference on AIDS in Melbourne. At least three infants are among the dead and the passenger manifest shows a number of Americans on the flight.
Witnesses say they saw a missile approaching the plane and that the plane split in two after the impact. The debris field from the flight covered over nine miles with large pieces untouched by fire; leading aviation experts to say the plane broke up mid-flight.
The terrorists in the region are trying to blame the incident on the Ukrainian government, however a posting online earlier in the day from Igor Strelkov, commander of the pro-Russian terrorists, read “we warned you not to fly over our sky.”
The posting was removed after it was reported in major media a passenger plane was shot down rather than a Ukrainian military or transport flight.
A new report from the Pew Research Center shows that China and Russia are the top countries in the world for destruction of churches by government organizations.
Pew collected information on “demolition of houses of worship, and the seizure of religious groups’ property and government raids of houses of worship that result in property damage.”
China, which has been conducting very high profile crackdowns on Christian congregations in their country, only has 5 percent of the population calling themselves Christians according to the CIA World Factbook. Russia shows 15-20% of the population as Russian Orthodox and only 2% as just Christian.
The two nations were joined in third by Tajikistan, a 90 percent Muslim country, as having more than 100 documented cases of churches being destroyed by government groups.
The next tier (from 10 to 99 incidents) included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan and Indonesia.
The only two nations in the Americas that were on the list of 10 or more churches destroyed was Cuba and Venezuela.
A new report shows that asteroids caused more than two dozen nuclear-level explosions in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The report from the B612 Foundation shows that the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization recorded 26 nuclear-level explosions between 2000 and 2013. One blast was dozens of times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb with an equivalent power of 16 kilotons of TNT.
Scientists quoted in the report say that the explosions were too high in the atmosphere to cause serious damage on the ground. However, the explosions show the significant threat to the planet from asteroid impacts.
“While most large asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire country or continent have been detected, less than 10,000 of the more than a million dangerous asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire major metropolitan area have been found by all existing space or terrestrially operated observatories,” former astronaut Ed Lu said.
Lu referenced the 2013 500-kiloton meteor explosion over Russia that caused significant damage to hundreds of square miles of homes and businesses.
Despite asserting that they would not be invading any other parts of Ukraine, Russia has massed over 100,000 troops on the country’s border.
Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukraine National Security Council, said during a webcast that Russia has stationed large amounts of troops along the northern, western and southern borders of the country.
“We might see a huge attack on the territory of continental Ukraine [any day] and we are getting ready for it,” Parubiy said.
Intelligence officials say that Russia is working behind the scenes to try and stir up dissent throughout the rest of the country as an excuse to invade the rest of the nation.
U.S. lawmakers are being cautious about the situation, with one Representative noting that Russia has sent a large amount of armored vehicles and aircraft to the border.
A war in Ukraine could bring massive problems to the world oil markets and Europe, which is heavily dependent on natural gas from Russia.