Russia

We are one step closer to another full-blown return of the cold war.

Yesterday, during a briefing in Latvia's capital Riga, NATO Gen. Philip Breedlove said that NATO and the United States are switching their defense doctrine from assurance to deterrence in Eastern Europe in response to a “resurgent and aggressive Russia."

The comments by Breedlove come a day after the Pentagon said it would begin continuous rotations of an additional armored brigade of about 4,200 troops in Eastern Europe beginning in early 2017.

Russia has criticised US plans to position troops, tanks and other armored vehicles full time along NATO’s eastern borders, and said that Moscow is preparing a “completely asymmetrical” response to the deployments. Alexandr Grushko, Russia’s Ambassador to NATO said on Thursday that Moscow would not act like a “passive observer” but would rather undertake all those military measures needed to counter the “totally unjustified increased military presence.” Press TV reports: “Of course, our response will be completely asymmetrical.

There was much surprise in geopolitical circles several weeks ago when, completely out of the blue, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced he would begin withdrawing military forces from Syria at once, a move hailed by some as confirmation Russia had failed to achieve its goals in the civil war-ridden nation which serves as a hotbed of ISIS terrorist attacks around the globe, and by others as victory.

Russia have accused NATO of military provocation after NATO fighter jets followed Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s plane over the Baltic Sea this week.  Shoigu was heading towards Kaliningrad over neutral waters when his plane was shadowed by a group of NATO fighters from 2 kilometers behind. RT.com reports: The NATO jets did not approach the defense minister’s plane, which was escorted by several Su-27 fighter jets, according to pool correspondents of RIA Novosti, TASS and Interfax, who were on the same plane as the defense minister.

Submitted by Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk via Bawerk.net,