Russian Federation: The Russian leadership has directly expressed its concerns about the advancement of NATO’s military infrastructure to the east and is ready to take decisive military steps if it does not receive security guarantees from the alliance. This is the opinion of the Israeli diplomat and political scientist, the former head of the Nativ special service, Yakov Kedmi.
“Russia announces and explains very clearly: we demand or we expect that a diplomatic solution to the problem of NATO’s eastward movement and real threats to the Russian state will be found,” Yakov Kedmi said on the Solovyov Live YouTube channel. “Russia demands to solve this problem.”about:blank
According to him, President Putin told Joe Biden and Boris Johnson about this during online talks. At the same time, Kedmi believes, contacts have moved from the area of ”hysterical propaganda” in the West about the mythical Russian military threat to the area of more realistic steps. On the part of Russia, “the approach has changed,” the expert said.
Now the Russian leadership openly declares: “Either we will solve this problem by diplomatic means, or Russia itself will unilaterally solve this problem.” Kedmi drew attention to the fact that the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov hinted that Russia is ready to take military and military-technical measures, if its concerns about the expansion of NATO at the expense of Ukraine and the possible deployment of strike weapons near the borders of the Russian Federation, with a short flight time of missiles, will not be heard.
This, according to Kedmi, means that the Russian Armed Forces will solve this problem by force.
“The problem is the presence of certain armed forces or a base for the armed forces on the territory too close to Russia … By military means, this presence will be eliminated or make it impossible for this presence to create a real threat to Russia,” Kedmi said.
According to him, the specific goals will be determined by the Russian General Staff: “which bases, at what distance from the Russian border, in which NATO member states, which are not NATO members, pose this threat.”
These issues, Kedmi believes, will be the subject of negotiations between Russia and the United States and NATO on the elimination of threats to the security of the Russian Federation. “From them it will be possible to understand what points, what places Russia considers intolerable for the military presence of NATO and the United States, and what means should not be there. It will be possible to understand against what the military force of Russia will be used, ”the political scientist said.
At the same time, he did not rule out that we can talk not only about Ukraine, but also about the countries that are members of NATO. “Russia has repeatedly pointed out the danger of the bases in Romania and Poland, the danger of the military presence of aviation primarily at the airfields of the Baltic states,” he said. “Logically, these places can be designed to solve by military means the presence of NATO bases in these places, in these countries, or the American military presence that threatens Russia.”
In addition, the expert believes that Russia may raise the issue of NATO’s provocative military activity in the Baltic and Black Seas, as well as NATO strike flights over the Black Sea, along Russian borders and over the territories of countries, “whose airspace can be used to strike Russia “. This, in particular, is the airspace of the Baltic countries and Ukraine.
Answering the question whether Russian strikes on military installations on the territory of NATO countries would lead to a war with the alliance, Kedmi said: Romania, Poland or the Baltics. At least Russia will not begin to eliminate this threat with the introduction of Russian troops there. “
Kedmi formulated the meaning of Russia’s position on the threats posed by NATO as follows: “You will have to swallow this pill – we will solve the problem by military means, if you do not agree to a diplomatic solution.”
“No one is ready for a nuclear war in Europe with Russia,” said Yakov Kedmi.
In his opinion, the economic pressure that the West threatens Russia may have dangerous consequences for the West itself. “There was a history in which the economic pressure that suffocates the country can lead to a forceful response from the country to remove this threat,” the political scientist said.
As a response to tough economic sanctions, he named: the cessation of supplies of oil, coal and electricity to Ukraine, as well as oil and gas to Europe. “Ukraine will not last even a day if the electricity switch is stopped both in Belarus and in Russia. There is no way to give Ukraine electricity, ”Kedmi said.
In his opinion, Russia, in response to the economic and trade blockade, can itself block foreign ports in the Black Sea, when not a single ship will enter Bulgaria, Romania or Ukraine. Some ports in the Baltic Sea may also be blocked. And also a ban on flights over a certain territory was introduced. This method was used by the Western coalition in its time in Libya.
According to Kedmi, all these scenarios cannot be ruled out, given the latest statements by the Russian leadership about the “red lines” of security. These statements, Kedmi said, “are more understandable, more serious than the chatter in the American Senate.”
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