Washington
looks to be throwing more than the full faith and credit of the US
government behind Ukraine. On the heels of news that the US is set to
guarantee a Ukrainian international bond issue (while Greek pensioners
implicitly subsidize the country’s natural gas exports), NATO is in the
midst of conducting large scale military maneuvers along the Russian
border in a move Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says encourages
“Kiev to pursue a military solution.”
Over the course of 10 days, NATO will parade 120
combat vehicles across the region in an effort to prove how quickly the
West can confront perceived Russian aggression. Here’s more from
Military News:
The [Russian] ministry warned that it hopes
Europe "does see the risk of unconditionally following advice from U.S.
generals and will not opt for approaches that will rule out the risk of a
slide towards a military confrontation between Russia and NATO."
While the U.S. Army acknowledges the convoy's
movement is "a highly visible demonstration of U.S. commitment to its
NATO allies," Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the commander of U.S. Army Europe,
insists "the focus should be on what is the desired end state, and can
we get there using diplomatic and economic pressure and support."
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