Press TV
May 20, 2014
NATO threatens to increase military presence over Ukraine
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NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, made a number of veiled threats against Russia during his monthly press conference in Brussels.
Some analysts present said that his comments were undermined by his repeated requests for additional funding towards NATO given that Russia is one of the most well resourced countries in the world.
However, Rasmussen said that NATO will most probably increase its military presence in the Baltic Sea because of the ongoing unrest in Ukraine. In these pictures filmed last year, you can see the heads of the European Union cozying up with the democratically elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, but when Yanukovych subsequently delayed a trade deal with the EU, things turned against him. Now the EU blames Moscow for the fact that most people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine have voted against the interim government in Kiev which was never democratically elected. Some analysts say the West has mismanaged relations with Russia. NATO says there are no signs that Russia has withdrawn its forces along the border with Ukraine but international law experts point out that this criticism makes no sense given that Russia is fully entitled to deploy troops within its sovereign territory.
NATO defense ministers will meet in Brussels early next month to review the organization’s position with regards to the situation in Ukraine. Despite the tough words against Russia, analysts say that NATO will be very careful not to antagonize Moscow too much because of the country’s military might and its control over Europe’s gas supplies.
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