DISINFO: NATO pushes the “Anaconda strategy” against Russia
SUMMARY
NATO’s strategy against Russia is called the “Anaconda ringlet”[...] This is based on encircling Russia in all its borders, with NATO doing the job in eastern European regions, the Baltics, the Black Sea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, while Japan does the same in the Russian far East and the US and the UK increase the pressure in the northern route.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about encircling Russia, based on a distorted interpretation of facts. Despite frequent disinformation claims in this regard, there is no evidence backing the idea that a so-called “Anaconda ring” or a similar strategy exists. While Russia has always protested NATO enlargement in Eastern Europe and presented it as a threat, the reality is that countries who joined the Atlantic Alliance in its successive enlargements did it voluntarily and as sovereign nations, not as part of a deliberated strategy of the alliance to surround Russia.
In any case, NATO is a defensive organisation and is not interested in a conflict with Russia, and has in fact tried to establish several cooperation mechanisms with this country, which Russia has successively thwarted. Besides, although NATO cooperates with Central Asia and Caucasus states, it has no role or direct presence in these regions, and similar claims regarding Japan or the alleged actions of the US and UK in the “northern route” are equally unfounded.
In this case, the claim is part of a wider disinformation campaign aiming to blame NATO and the West for increasing tensions surrounding Ukraine, which are actually the result of Russia’s massive deployment of troops and military equipment to the Ukrainian border, accompanied by other aggressive actions including disinformation. The European Union has rejected Russia’s pretension of ‘spheres of influence’ in Europe and condemned its continued aggressive actions and threats against Ukraine.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that the West and the US are creating outposts against Russia, that clashes in Nagorno Karabakh were part of an Anaconda ring plan against Russia, that the West is applying an “Anaconda ring” of conflicts against China as it previously did with Russia, or that Ukraine is a platform for conflict with Russia for the West, which needs a hotspot on Russian border.