Posted on 04/20/2015 9:53:22 AM PDT by McGruff
U.S. support is "crucial" to Latvia amid concerns over an increase in Russian troop activity near its borders, the Baltic nation's defense chief said Monday.
Lt. Gen Raimonds Graube said that "Russian communication warfare and Russian troop build ups" are continuing along the Russia-Latvia border.
"The people of Latvia are scared because of this activity," he said after a meeting with the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Increased Russian military activity in the Baltic region in recent months has prompted a display of U.S. and NATO deterrence capabilities against any Russian threat to Europe's borders. But Graube stressed that the build-up has been not just over the last month but over the past two years, saying that his forces have identified Russian troops as close as 16 miles away from Latvia's borders.
Graube's remarks came as Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier launched an initiative to train journalists from Baltic countries to "increase the media diversity also for Russian speaking television."
Steinmeier said that the initiative's goal isn't to "react to propaganda with counter-propaganda" but instead with "free and independent journalism."
Oh really.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected an offer from the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to “take the Donbass”, the area in east Ukraine which pro-Moscow rebels and Ukrainian government forces have fought for control of.
Poroshenko made the offer during a peace summit in Minsk in February 2015, Putin reportedly told a senior member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on 19 March.
An anonymous source present at the closed door meeting revealed to Forbes Russian edition that Putin told the summit: “[Poroshenko] told me directly: ‘Take the Donbass.’ I replied: ‘Are you out of your mind? I don't need the Donbass. If you don't need it, declare it independent.’”
...says the Putin loving stooge
I completely agree and thank your son for me for his service!
I say we need more soldiers heavy weapons and bring back the missile shield to the Baltic States.
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