ENEMIES DECLARED ON BOTH SIDES (Satis Shroff)

3 min readJul 3, 2022

Be that as it may, the Nato will not attack Russia as long as the latter refrains from invading or attacking a Nato member country. Will Putin interpret this again as a show of weakness and go ahead to fulfil his dreams of Bigger Russia?

ENEMIES DECLARED ON BOTH SIDES (Satis Shroff)

The Nato has changed its rhetoric and has declared Russia as its enemy. All the members, including Turkey, have decided on Wednesday at the summit in Madrid, to increase the number of soldiers to over 300,000.

Moreover, heavy weapons will be moved to Poland and the Baltic countries. Nato members have unanimously agreed to take in Finland and Sweden as new members, which means the border to Russia will be extended to 1,300 km, a tremendous task indeed.

United and Determined: According to the new strategic concept, Russia has been declared the biggest threat to the security of the nato and to the peace and stability in the European and Atlantic space.

The only way to make Russia to negotiate and reach a peaceful solution is for Nato members to be united and determined towards this threat. In the past we have seen that half-heartedness, hesitation among Nato members and gestures towards appeasement have made Putin only bolder, more demanding like a tyrant. The Nato has at last decided to show a hard stance towards Russia.

Russian Narrative: Russia will undoubtedly capitalise on this public statement in its media to turn the opinions usual, and present the western alliance as enemies of the Russian folk. Putin had earlier made a statement that his conflict, which in the world’s terminology is a war, will be carried out with conventional weapons, and not nuclear arms, even though both sides are armed with nukes. As far as Russia is concerned, and in compliance with the Russian narrative, the expansion of Nato further ‘destabilises’ the international affairs.

However, the world knows that Ukraine, as well as the individual Nato leaders have expressed their desire in different talks with Putin throughout the invasion period but little or no desire on the part of Russia to bring peace in the Baltic region. Lavrov’s rabid and parrot-like repetitions of lies and fake news has long become obnoxious to the thinking, democratic world. Russia annexed Crimea and supplied them with Russian passports and has supported the separatists in the Donbas. The west replied with sanctions. It is definitely Russia that has endangered the stability and security in the European continent.

According to the Russian Vice-Foreign Minister Sergej Rjabkow, the USA has missed the chance to avert an escalation scenario during the talks last year in Washington on keeping troops in the Russian and Nato sides in balance. But with the new membership of Finland and Sweden, Russia is trying to use this as an acknowledgement of its angst of being really surrounded by Nato countries, without, of course, mentioning that it was the Russian move to invade Ukraine that gave the evidence that the Kremlin is no longer trustworthy , and has misused its powerful military resources to set forth a campaign of re-winning and re-integrating the former territories of the former Soviet Union. This is the fundamental argument of Putin and nothing has changed since then. The situation can only get worse and can be averted when the Nato does its homework well in containing the Kremlin ruler by showing him that the Nato also means business, and is willing to defend the borders of its member states.

There is an escalation of verbal kriegs rhetoric on both sides. What is needed at the moment is a ceasefire and peace talks; failing which a new escalation stage will be reached in the war front, and Europe has to prepare for the worst. In Germany there is talk about the using less hot water from the taps. People have to brace themselves for more austerity in the west and in Russia, as the oil and gas squeeze, embargo and sanctions will be felt everywhere.