PRESS RELEASE

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Russia Warns It Will Respond to Further NATO Escalation

April 28, 2016 (EIRNS)—In his remarks to the Moscow Conference on International Security, yesterday, Russia’s Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko warned of the escalatory nature of NATO’s confrontational approach towards Russia. He described the NATO-Russia Founding Act as "one of the key elements of military security in Europe," but that NATO’s activities on its eastern front "disrupt the purpose of this fundamental act." NATO’s "confrontational scheme" of providing security through the deployment of additional military potential, Grushko warned, "will obviously lead to responsive measures from our end." Similarly, at the Foreign ministry, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that NATO’s talk about establishing a Black Sea flotilla, along with all of the other measures it is taking in Romania and elsewhere in the region

"seriously undermines security and stability in this part of the continent, forcing Russia to take adequate countermeasures to ensure its own security,"

Zakharova noted.

NATO kept up with its escalation, yesterday, with the deployment of a pair of F-22 stealth fighters to Lithuania, where they were greeted by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite after they put on a 20-minute airshow for her. The F-22’s are no doubt meant to be a message to Russia, to which Secretary of Defense Ash Carter yesterday added another one: keep away from our ships. He told the Senate Appropriations Committee, yesterday, that he expects that the Russian military will keep its pilots under control so that they don’t fly too close to U.S. ships operating close to Russia’s coastline again—as if the flyovers were due to rogue pilots.