PRESS RELEASE

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British Royal Think Tank Advocates Extending War Front against Russia To Include the Northern Atlantic

March 12, 2017 (EIRNS)—The London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) has published a new report, authored by two American former NATO commanders, asserting that NATO must take steps in the North Atlantic that are comparable to and in support of NATO’s actions in eastern Europe.

Authored by former NATO commanders U.S. Adm. James Stavridis (ret.) and U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove (ret.), the report claims that there is a growing Russian threat in the northern Atlantic, which has become the testing area for Russia’s increasingly sophisticated submarines and aircraft, and therefore plays an important part in Russian military strategic calculations which could deny NATO members freedom of maneuver at sea.

Breedlove noted that NATO has overlooked the North Atlantic maritime area, and has instead focused on other areas, including Afghanistan, tensions in Ukraine and an alliance effort during the past two and half years to build up land forces along its eastern borders with Russia.

In response to the provocative report, Nikolai Topornin, an associate professor of European Law at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Moscow State Institute of International Relations, told Radio Sputnik, referring to Breedlove:

"All work is paid for, and this report is no exception. How objective it is and the competency of the person who prepared it is another issue. It’s one thing if he has tried to give an objective picture, but if he wanted to spread some fear and think up some stories, that’s quite another and it seems to me that in this case, it’s most likely the second one."

"The man has simply set himself the task of telling everyone that Russia was violating some kind of strategic standards, is strengthening its military presence, including naval and may constitute some kind of threat,"

Topornin told Radio Sputnik.