DISINFO: Pentagon calls to confront the Russian threat in the Black Sea with more missiles
SUMMARY
Even more anti-aircraft missiles, exercises and military bases in NATO countries with access to the Black Sea. That’s how the Pentagon calls to confront the Russian threat. The details of this large-scale plan were recently published by the US government analytical centre RAND.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about US presence in Europe and NATO. The report by the RAND research centre actually says that it is Russia who is destabilising the region by using military force against other countries in the region for the fourth time since 2008.
"Russia is also using informational, economic, energy, and clandestine instruments to advance its goals of transforming the Black Sea, along with the Sea of Azov, into virtual internal waterways, where Russia can have the kind of freedom of action it has achieved in the Caspian Sea. While the Black Sea littoral countries want to protect themselves from Russian hostile interference, domestic political factors, as well as the countries' membership in or level of association with the European Union and NATO, influence the degree of overlap and divergence in their interests", claims the report.
The RAND report only made recommendations on what a strategy could be to protect the interests of the countries of the Black Sea region, given these threats. RAND is a nonprofit organisation, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest, but not the US government analytical centre as it was mentioned by Russian journalists.