DISINFO: US keeps reminding Europe about “Russian threat” through Skripal and Litvinenko cases
SUMMARY
The existence of such an alliance like NATO depends on having an enemy. In the times of the bipolar division of the world, it was possible to scare with the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the arguments in favour of maintaining this expanded Alliance disappeared.
From time to time, Washington tries to show that NATO is not the aggressive side. At the same time, when it needs to “remind” Europe of the constant Russian threat, it uses such issues as the Skripals, explosions in Czechia, anniversaries of the deaths of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya, etc. The USA always keep some doors open for Russia – unless it is ready to apologise. Today, Russia stopped playing this game.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, portraying NATO as a threat to global peace and an aggressive anti-Russian organisation. The pro-Kremlin outlets repeatedly promote the idea that the West “invents” various “anti-Russian provocations” such as developments around Skripal, Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexey Navalny, explosions in Czechia and other issues.
On 7 October 2021, NATO expelled eight Russian functionaries working in the Russian mission to this organisation – these people are accused of spying. On 18 October 2021, Moscow decided to suspend the work of its mission to NATO. This situation is not a result of any alleged anti-Russian “Cold War” policies but the direct involvement of the Russian diplomats in espionage.
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has introduced sweeping changes to its membership and working practices – changes made clear by its adoption of new Strategic Concepts in 1999 and 2010. Accusations that NATO has retained its Cold War purpose ignore the reality of those changes. Over the same period, NATO reached out to Russia with a series of partnership initiatives, culminating in the foundation of the NATO-Russia Council in 2002. No other country outside the Alliance has such a privileged relationship with NATO. As reaffirmed by NATO leaders at the Brussels Summit in July 2018, “NATO does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia.”
Moreover, Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine in early 2014 was widely viewed both in North America and in Europe as violating the basic rules of the post-Cold War European order, especially the rule that borders are inviolable and the states should not use force to alter them or take territory from other states.
Read similar disinfo cases alleging that the idea that Russia is a threat to Europe exists only in the minds of Cold War nostalgics and that NATO is an ineffective relic of the Cold War.