NATO position on Russia very contradictory: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Dmitry Babich, radio host of Voice of Russia in Moscow, about NATO announcing plans to station a rotating force near the border with Russia amid allegations made by members of the Western military alliance concerning the "potential threat" of Russian aggression.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: First of all give us your assessment of the recent comments made by Jens Stoltenberg.

Babich: Well I think that the position of NATO is very contradictory. On one hand they say that they want a dialogue with Russia. On the other hand they do not listen to any of the Russian arguments and they keep increasing their military presence in the areas which have never belonged to them before the collapse of the Soviet Union. They increased their military presence in the Baltics, even though when NATO expanded to the Baltics with Mr. Putin’s consent in 2004, it was promised that these areas would not be used to launch an attack against Russia.

So on the one hand Mr. Stoltenberg talks about a dialogue, on the other hand he does not listen. The same applies to the Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski. He says that he wants a dialogue with Russia and Russia does not want to talk to him but he several times called Russia ... an existential threat in the last few months. So it is a very hypocritical position when you say you want a dialogue with your opponent but you are not ready to accept any of your opponent’s arguments.

Press TV: Terms like Russia’s aggression and stability beyond NATO’s borders they pretty much allude to what is expected to be the main aim of the upcoming summit in Warsaw and that is expanding NATO’s presence specifically in Eastern Europe but what kind of a response are we expecting to see from Moscow?  

Babich: Well I think this is President Putin’s tactics. He always makes unexpected moves. Our constitution gave him special powers just like in the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt had special powers during the World War II. Of course Russia’s military capability is a lot smaller than the capability of NATO or even of the United States alone so the only trump card that Russia has is to act unexpectedly, to act in the way that the opponents would not be able to foresee. They did not leave us any other choice.

As for the capability of NATO for a dialogue it is very low because Mr. Stoltenberg does not want to hear what Russia says that there is a civil war going on in Ukraine. Actually Mr. Stoltenberg should read the Western newspapers from the 90s and from the early 2000s and from 2012 for example. These newspapers always wrote that there were a lot of people in Ukraine who wanted better ties with Russia than with the West. It was presented as a big problem in the Western media for 25 years and now Mr. Stoltenberg pretends that all Ukraine wants to be with NATO and not with Russia. He is simply lying and he has been lying for many months now. This is the problem.  

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