NATO expansion near Russia risks confrontation: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Sara Flounders, a member of the International Action Center in New York, to discuss the rising tensions between Russia and NATO.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Tensions between NATO and Russia obviously have been building up but each and every time there is always this growing suspicion of it leading to perhaps a confrontation. How close are NATO and Russia when it comes to confrontation? 

Flounders: Well it is a very, very dangerous situation. You have had continual US military maneuvers, reinforcing of troops, war games and it is all really based on NATO expansion, an aggressive US-commanded military alliance right to the borders and encircling Russia and it is impossible to look at the map and come to any other conclusion despite the US promise and commitment, back in 1990, Secretary of State Baker did promise if Russian forces or Soviet forces at the time were withdrawn, the Warsaw Pact, 300,000 troops from East Germany, that NATO would not expand one inch to the East and of course NATO has expanded from 12 countries that was the original NATO membership now to 28 countries and it has led to one war after another.

Really the war in Yugoslavia was about the expansion, the aggressive expansion of NATO. NATO forces have continually been used out of area, of course, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and all over the Middle East, very, very dangerous and the NATO equipping at a cost of hundreds of millions really billions of dollars into what were formally countries that had a friendly relationship to Russia and today are part of the NATO military alliance.

But there is not only the equipping, it is the continual movement of these NATO forces through the countries of Eastern Europe right on the borders and also the continual efforts at overturns of what are called color revolutions throughout Eastern Europe, one country after another, who then quickly applies for NATO membership and Ukraine being maybe the worst, the latest example of where there was really a fascist coup, an overturn of the elected government and immediate recognition by the US and immediate plans really for NATO expansion and there was resistance from eastern Ukraine and we can really see that that is where the confrontation has become the sharpest. Russia again took the Crimea which is where their strongest navy base is.

So this confrontation, none of it, none of it would be happening without the decision to expand, equip, and militarize NATO right to the borders of Russia.

Press TV: Well when you talk about equip, militarize and support NATO, you mentioned that the number of countries that comprises NATO, but isn’t it true that the US provides almost 70 percent of NATO’s budget, so how much of NATO is being dictated perhaps by the US in terms of its confrontation or provocation, I should say, regarding Russia?

Flounders: It totally comes from the US. NATO has always been a US-commanded and US-led military alliance and US-equipped. It is all equipped overwhelmingly with US military arms, which means enormous profit to US military industries but this has never been a partnership on any level, whatsoever. It is a stationing of US troops throughout Europe and where there are troops of other countries, it is all US-commanded.

Press TV: Why do you think then the other countries are following through? There have been reports of even countries like France and Germany who are really not so much into confronting Russia ... Why do you think that these countries are following the US’s lead in terms of the NATO configuration?

Flounders: Well the US is really the dominant military alliance, it is hard to have much of an argument when there is tens of thousands of troops stationed in your country, when there are bases all over and there are hundreds of US bases in Europe east and west.

So all of this constantly creates facts on the ground and creates confrontation and extremely dangerous, growingly dangerous confrontations, because when you are moving this kind of equipment and cruise missiles and putting missile batteries in place and so on, all of this heightens tensions in the region and also the imposition, the political imposition, the coups and overturns of elected governments throughout Eastern Europe, this has also led to a crisis and Ukraine of course being the latest but we have seen earlier whether it was in Georgia, whether it was in one country after another there has been extreme US interference and the interference of the so-called non-governmental organizations which they fund in their hundreds and hundreds, US corporate funded and funded by USAID government programs.

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