DISINFO: Russophobic Baltic NATO-States responsible for turning defensive NATO-alliance into confrontation with Russia
SUMMARY
The question here is not about capability, but rather intent. The reconfiguration of the Russian Army away from brigade-sized formations designed to fight smaller conflicts, to the rebirth of Soviet-era formations such as the 1st Guards Tank Army and the 20th Combined Arms Army occurred not because Russia seeks the domination of Europe by military means, but was rather necessitated by the eastward expansion of NATO to incorporate nations such as Poland and the Baltic States with hard-wired animosity toward Russia.
The Russophobic postures of these new NATO members have resulted in the transformation of the trans-Atlantic alliance from a defensive posture to one where the armed forces of several European nations, along with the US, are deployed along the Russian border, with the sole mission of confronting the Russian military.
RESPONSE
This article transmits recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about NATO's aggressive plans towards Russia and the vassal Baltic states. It portrays NATO as a threatening and conflict-creating alliance. This message can be found in earlier disinformation cases alleging that the U.S. will easily betray the Baltic states and hand them over to Russia, and that the US wants Russia to buy the Baltic states.
The Baltic states' membership of NATO involves a defensive alliance and one which does not pose a threat to Russia. Its purpose is to protect its member states. Every country that joins NATO undertakes to uphold its principles and policies, and this includes the commitment that:
"the Alliance does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia,"
as reaffirmed at the Brussels Summit. For more information about NATO-Russia relations and disinformation narratives about NATO, see here and here.
NATO's enhanced presence in the Baltic Sea region was at the request of the Baltic states. Following Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia requested a greater NATO presence in the region. A 2016 Gallup poll found that most people in Allied countries in the Baltic region associate NATO with the protection of their country. When it comes to NATO's decisions, they are made by consensus, after discussion and consultation among member countries. Individual NATO member states have overseas bases on the basis of bilateral agreements and the principle of consent of the host-nation, in contrast with Russian bases on the territory of Moldova (Transnistria), Ukraine (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) and Georgia (the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia).
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that the US is occupying the EU and the Baltic countries nearly lost their statehood, that the US plans to turn the Baltic states into an empty field and arena for Drang nach Osten against Russia, that Lithuania is temporarily a NATO-occupied territory ruled by non-Lithuanians, that NATO buried Latvia’s and Lithuania’s independence, and that the Baltic States and Ukraine belong to the ’Russian world’.