The Gloves Are Off: NATO Declares Russia The Enemy

Update: Russia and China to announce joint Naval Drills. Russia has now said that Geneva Accord is off the table after Kiev launched another attack on eastern provinces.

Although a statement by its Deputy Secretary General, Alexander Vershbow, may seem as a PR stunt, the truth is that today more than ever NATO needs to justify its existence.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was born with the only purpose of “defending its member-states” has not only expanded operations beyond the original scope of its charter, but it has also actively sought invisible threats that guarantee its existence.

Denying that NATO is the military arm of the Western powers that lend their war machinery to carry out genocide wherever military oppression is needed to achieve their goals is denying the very existence of a globalist force that has used force each and every time a government did not align with them. Unfortunately for NATO and Western imperialism apologists, Yugoslavia is still fresh in the minds of many millions of people, especially in Europe.

As per Mr. Vershbow’s statement, it should not be taken lightly because NATO has already accused Russia of every single evil perpetrated in Ukraine since the crisis started in February. If just a few months ago NATO saw Russia as a military partner, now the Alliance sees the country as the enemy. As reported by AP yesterday, Mr. Vershbow has said that Russia will be treated “as more of an enemy than a partner.”

Vershbow, who was the American ambassador in Moscow, was reported as saying that NATO is considering new measures to counteract Russia’s future threats to Alliance partners. “We need to step up our support for defense reforms and military modernization of Russia’s neighbors, and not just of Ukraine, but also Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan,” said the former diplomat.

The rhetoric sponsored by Vershbow echoes that of NATO’s current Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who in early April voiced threats towards Moscow for aiding the population of Crimea to carry out a referendum that ended up with the former Ukrainian province voting to become part of Russia.

Western imperialist nations such as the U.S., France, Italy, Spain and others see Russia’s resurgence on the world stage as a threat to their dominance, which is why NATO, with the help of the United States, began encircling it with military bases all around its borders. Now, even though Ukraine is not a NATO or EU member, both NATO and the EU have mounted an aggressive rhetorical campaign against Moscow.

Vershbow’s words were supported by the Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, who said that “It is also important for the United States to show leadership… to make sure that next steps that NATO will make, for example at the summit in September, will be adequate response to what’s happening in Ukraine.” For NATO, the EU and the United States, it is wrong for people to seek self-determination when such move is carried out to escape from their control, but it is quite all right to support the terrorists who initially caused the civil war that is now taking over Ukraine.

NATO’s real intentions were clearly expressed by the Georgian Defense Minister when he said that “The West should now seize the opportunity and create the reality on the ground by accepting membership of aspirant countries, by putting purely defensive assets in aspirant countries and predominantly in Georgia.”  With his statement, Alasania admits that NATO’s only intention is to increase its presence around Russia to further isolate Moscow from the rest of the region.

Both Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin have changed their tone from being cautious about NATO’s intentions to issuing bolder statements in regards to what they see are the real objectives of the Alliance and its members. “I think what is happening now shows us who really was mastering the process from the beginning. But in the beginning, the United States preferred to remain in the shadow,” said Putin, who last week explicitly said that the United States has been running the show from the beginning.

Meanwhile, Lavrov said that the United States did not care about the outcome in Ukraine and that all the Americans wanted was to prove that they were still relevant. As it usually happens, Western propaganda has been strongly parroted by main stream media, which has come to portray Russia as the enemy while attempting to paint the current conflict between Russia and the West as the beginning of a new Cold War. “Unfortunately, the information machine of our Western colleagues is working at full capacity,” said Lavrov during a press conference.

“At this stage, we want to give our partners a chance to calm down,” said Lavrov, who had previously explained that the United States is trying to shape public opinion in a way that makes people look at Russia as the big bad enemy. “We’ll see what happens next. If absolutely baseless notations towards Russia will continue, if there are attempts to pressure us with economic leverage, then we may reevaluate the situation.”

Washington’s stance against self-determination

While condemning what it calls ‘terrorism’ and ‘fake’ popular uprisings in other regions of the world, in the case of Ukraine, the United States has not only sponsored but also encouraged the rise of extremist groups that the Washington regime is now arming so that they can aggressively oppress members of the pro-Russian movement in eastern provinces.

This week, the International Monetary Fund has launched an aid package to ‘rescue’ Ukraine from bankruptcy, an outcome that was sure to occur since all relations between Russia and Ukraine have been broken as a consequence of the Western-led coup. Ukraine is almost completely dependent on Russia for its survival, and it was that very fact what prompted Western powers to help terrorists carry out the ousting of President Yanukovych. Previous to the coup taking place, Russia and Ukraine had began negotiations that would have ended in lower gas prices for the former Soviet state.

Russia had also promised a $15 billion loan to Ukraine, which would have saved the country from going bankrupt. Right about the time when the negotiations between Putin and Yanukovych took place was that alleged pro-European groups in Ukraine began street protests. Those protests then developed into Ukraine’s current state of affairs. It was also in the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations that both opposition leaders in Kiev and the United States called the meeting between Putin and Yanukovych a fruitless move that “would not address the concerns of the tens of thousands of Ukrainians protesting Yanukovych’s decision to abandon an agreement with the EU.”

Before conflict broke out in Ukraine last February, not only was Ukraine not going to accept any Western intervention, but it had already agreed to receive Russian financial aid to improve economic conditions in the country. Under Yanukovych Ukraine had rejected an appeal made by the EU to become a commercial partner, an attitude that did not sit well with European bankers or American politicians. ‘Luckily’ for the West, the coup against Yanukovych took place immediately.

Both the United States and the EU have said that Russia is solely responsible for the Ukrainian crisis for annexing Crimea, even though it was the Crimean people who decided to become part of Russia. The U.S. also accuses Russia of allowing anti-Kiev protestors to take over local government offices in eastern provinces, although Russia has nothing to do with the uprisings. “…we cannot decide for the self-defense forces,” said Lavrov.

Anti-Kiev forces have increased their activity in the East, especially in Donetsk, Lugansk, and other regions.

As if NATO’s plans were not clear enough, this week, the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has explained that the ultimate goal is to achieve total control of Europe and its closer neighbors, including former Soviet states, while pressing against Russia’s borders. Van Rompuy said that even if the public manifests its opposition to such political and military escalation against Russia, the globalist elite will simply “do it anyway”.

Should Western powers be this determined to attack Russia militarily, politically and economically, as they have been doing during the last few years, a confrontation is not a matter of if, but of when. The only obstacle separating the world from an open war between the West and Russia is Putin’s caution when dealing with American and European insane bureaucrats who think they can do whatever they want. There is also China, of course. Should the Asian giant decide to act more emphatically along with Russia against unsought Western aggression, perhaps Europe and the United States will delay their ‘open season’ on Russia.

Luis R. Miranda is the Founder and Editor of The Real Agenda. His 16 years of experience in Journalism include television, radio, print and Internet news. Luis obtained his Journalism degree from Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, where he graduated in Mass Media Communication in 1998. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting from Montclair State University in New Jersey. Among his most distinguished interviews are: Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres and James Hansen from NASA Space Goddard Institute. Read more about Luis.