Duma Member Claims NATO Troop Build-Up East Targets Russia
Andrei Kolesnik says NATO moves troops to its eastern flank to pressure Russia, citing revanchist ideas in Germany and a plan to redeploy up to 800,000 soldiers.
According to Andrei Kolesnik, a member of the State Duma Defence Committee, NATO countries are trying to intimidate Russia by moving their troops to the alliance’s eastern flank. He argued that revanchist ideas still linger in Germany.
Kolesnik told Lenta.ru that, in his view, such manoeuvres are nothing new, since any NATO exercise involves shifting troops from one location to another, and that the current redeployments to the east should be seen not as a purely German initiative, but as a joint NATO operation.
He also reminded European countries that the sentences of the Nuremberg Tribunal against Nazi war criminals were carried out by US military personnel, among them Sergeant John Wood.
Earlier, journalists from The Wall Street Journal reported that the Bundeswehr’s command is working on a plan that would provide for the possible redeployment of 800,000 NATO troops to the alliance’s eastern flank in the event of the outbreak of hostilities.