Posted on 02/25/2022 1:03:42 PM PST by Covenantor
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the alliance by telling it to withdraw forces from member nations or face consequences.
This goes far beyond Ukraine," Stoltenberg warned. "This is about how Russia is actually challenging, contesting core values for our security. Then warning that NATO should withdraw all forces and infrastructure from almost half of our members.
"They said that if we don't do that, if we don't meet their demands, there will be what they call ‘military-technical consequences,'" he added.
The leader of the 30-member alliance said that in response to these threats NATO has for the first time deployed its Response Force for collective security.
Stoltenberg said the U.S., U.K., France and Germany are among the NATO nations to have deployed forces and lead elements to assist the Response Force.
"We have to take this seriously," he said....
(more at link....posting from droid with lousy connection)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
listen to the video or audio
...
The other nations would be rolled over without US support.
Clearly not if he goes nuclear, but if not he’s toast. 60%-70% of his ground forces are in Ukraine now. This ain’t Brehznev’s Red Army.
not a real Landser in the bunch...
Here is a post from TexAgs.com which could give a clue into Putin’s state of mind. I’m a Bama fan, but TexAgs.com contains some good political info.
Ksenia Sobchak, another television celebrity whose father was mayor of St. Petersburg and a 1990s mentor to Mr. Putin, posted on Instagram that from now on she would only “believe in the worst possible scenarios” about her country’s future. Days earlier, she had praised Mr. Putin as a “grown-up, adequate politician” compared to his Ukrainian and American counterparts.
“We are now all trapped in this situation,” she wrote on Thursday. “There is no exit. We Russians will spend many years digging out from the consequences of this day.”
During the pandemic, analysts had noticed a change in Mr. Putin a man who isolated himself in a bubble of social distancing without parallel among Western leaders. In isolation, he appeared to become more aggrieved and more emotional, and increasingly spoke about his mission in stark historical terms. His public remarks descended ever deeper into distorted historiography as he spoke of the need to right perceived historical wrongs suffered by Russia over the centuries at the hands of the West.
The political scientist Gleb O. Pavlovsky, a close adviser to Mr. Putin until falling out with him in 2011, said he was stunned by the president’s dark description of Ukraine as a dire threat to Russia in his hourlong speech to the nation on Monday.
“I have no clue where he got all that he seems to be reading something totally strange,” Mr. Pavlovsky said. “He’s become an isolated man, more isolated than Stalin was.”
Ms. Stanovaya, the analyst, said she now felt that Mr. Putin’s heightened obsession with history in recent years had become key to understanding his motivation. After all, the war against Ukraine appeared impossible to explain strategically, since it had no clear resolution and would inevitably only increase anti-Russian sentiment abroad and escalate Russia’s confrontation with the NATO alliance.
“Putin has brought himself to a place in which he sees it as more important, more interesting, more compelling to fight for restoring historical justice than for Russia’s strategic priorities,” Ms. Stanovaya said. “This morning, I realized that a certain shift has taken place.”
She said that by all appearances, the ruling elite around Mr. Putin did not realize that Thursday’s war was coming, and was uncertain about how to respond. Beyond state television personalities and pro-Kremlin politicians, few prominent Russians spoke out in support of the war.
But that, she said, did not mean that Mr. Putin risked any kind of palace coup, given his tight hold on the country’s sprawling security apparatus and his expansive crackdown on dissent over the last year.
“He can still act for a long time,” Ms. Stanovaya said. “Inside Russia, he is practically secure from political risk.”
and I’m sure you’ll be first in line at the Marine Corps enlistment center, volunteering to go “kick some Russian ass” ?
The United States has an armed forces probably much better trained in CRT and gender studies than it is conducting combat operations on Russia’s doorstep.
Russia has a lot of cash reserves and if they shut it the oil spigot there will be a lot of pain until other countries pick up the slack. Before that happens though Russia would flood the world with the oil to kill it.
The only hope might be some sort of Red Storm Rising style military coup to end this on the Russian side. Putin is still lavished over there though overall, so it’s not likely.
“How odd. NATO coming to the help of a non-NATO country.”
That’s not it at all. Did you not hear Putin yesterday? He specifically mentioned Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members. NATO is responding to a thinly-veiled threat against some NATO members.
What’s more: Russia has gold.
It can ignore SWIFT and erode the petrodollar.
I agree
I call him Vlad “the bad” now.
They have Ivan the terrible, and Peter the great, etc. So now its Vlad the bad..or mad.
Is Nato creating this story now or is Putin actually demanding this? I know he did so in Negotiations but I find this hard to believe.
NATO isn’t going to attack Russia unless Russia invades a NATO country. Harsh language isn’t in the charter.
Well - I say NATO *isn’t* going to do this.
It *shouldn’t*. But NATO is perhaps part of the deep state, and will end up launching the war for Hunter Biden’s Paycheck.
Definitely protect Poland.
Putin’s state of mind
If Biden wants to intervene, he needs to organise a coalition like Bush did with Iraq. Or go it alone. NATO forces aren’t his private army.
______
Biden is NOT in charge here.
It looks to me like NATO is actually acting alone. Reaction in Europe is a lot larger than in the USA. European NATO is trying to do something while Biden is licking ice-cream.
Unfortunately, they neglected their military for a long, log while! But it is getting very scary!
NATO forces fresh now from Canada beating weaponless truckers, this is different.
That’s retarded!
Slavs will just go mutual assured destruction!
Damn, we’ve had it too good for so long.
I’ve spent time over in that neck of the woods. It’s not wise to poke a bear. Ukraine gov should resign and get a new one. Best advice I have. NATO needs to not exist, let alone get involved.
Didn’t Tom Clancy write a book on that?
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