US pushing envelope on Russia: Ex-Senate candidate
The United States is “pushing the envelope” with its “insane” policies towards Russia, setting the stage for a military confrontation with the rival nuclear power, says a former US Senate candidate in Texas.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned Friday that “about 200 US nuclear bombs are currently deployed in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey.”
Russia does not look favorably upon the deployment of nuclear weapons in NATO states near its borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that if NATO threatens Russia, Moscow will respond to the threat accordingly.
“When we look at this whole [issue of] Vladimir Putin’s Russia and NATO, the United States has broken a series of explicit promises to Russia… that the United States would not move American and NATO military assets closer to Russian borders,” Mark Dankof said in an interview with Press TV. “We have broken that promise.”
“We promised that we would not recruit former Eastern Bloc countries to join NATO, we have broken that promise,” he continued.
“And then of course, we have proceeded in what we have been doing against Russian interests in Ukraine, where we supported the illegal coup d’etat there in February 2014,” Dankof noted.
“And of course, what the United States has been doing in conjunction with Israel and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council states in supporting ISIL and supporting al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria in an attempt, among other things, to marginalize the Russian position in that part of the world, we have really been pushing the envelope,” he said.
The analyst said that “these policies are wrong, they’re evil, and they’re immoral. But beyond that, they are simply insane.”
“Because Russia is a proud nation, Russia is a legitimate military power. Russia is a nuclear power,” he added.
Dankof said these reckless policies have caused the United States to lose its “prestige” in the world.
“Look at what the United States has been doing for the last 14 years; we have been involved for three times the length of time that we were involved in the Second World War, floundering in Iraq, floundering in Afghanistan, creating new tragedies and new disarray in Libya, and in Syria, and in Yemen, and in Somalia, and in Pakistan with no end in sight,” he noted.
“Does any sane person really believe that the United States needs to add a political and military confrontation with Vladimir Putin’s Russia to what it has been doing for the past 14 years?” Dankof asked.
The crises in Ukraine and Syria have plunged the US-Russian relationship to its lowest point since the Cold War.
US Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Washington will only step up pressure on Moscow if “Russian aggression” continues.
“If Russian aggression persists, the cost imposed on Moscow will continue to rise,” Biden said in a rare address to the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev.
