The secretary-general of the NATO alliance said on Tuesday that Russia was playing a “double game” in Ukraine, issuing conciliatory public statements while massing its forces along the border and smuggling arms and equipment to separatists inside eastern Ukraine.
“There’s no doubt that Russia is heavily engaged in destabilizing eastern Ukraine, and they continue their activities,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview shortly after meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House.
Speaking in unusually blunt terms, Rasmussen, whose term ends in October, warned the West not to be fooled by moderate statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said was trying to fend off another round of economic sanctions.
Photo: AFP
“Don’t make any mistake, it’s pure tactics,” Rasmussen said. “He keeps open the option to intervene if necessary.”
Rasmussen served as Danish prime minister before becoming NATO secretary-general in 2009. During much of his tenure, the alliance was preoccupied with the war in Afghanistan, a mission far removed from its original role: the defense of Europe against a potential Soviet attack. However, with Russia’s seizure of Crimea and its support for separatists in Ukraine, NATO has returned to its roots.
Russia, Rasmussen said, was waging what he called “hybrid warfare,” a combination of military action, covert operations and an aggressive program of disinformation — all calculated to weaken Ukraine’s new government and leave its eastern part under Russian influence.
Rasmussen said it was likely that separatist fighters had used Russian antiaircraft weapons to shoot down Ukrainian planes and helicopters — echoing recent comments by NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe US Air Force General Philip Breedlove and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
“Who else should have provided the separatists with those weapons?” Rasmussen asked, “Who else?”
With NATO preparing for a critical summit meeting in Wales in early September, Rasmussen said the alliance also needed to reshape itself to face the longer-term reality that “Russia doesn’t consider NATO a partner; Russia considers NATO an adversary.”
With Russia’s military spending on the rise and the military expenditures of many NATO members waning, he said, that presents the alliance with a major challenge.
Besides the threat to Ukraine, Rasmussen said he and Obama had also discussed the winding down of NATO combat operations in Afghanistan and how the alliance planned to respond to what he described as an arc of instability, stretching from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and across North Africa.
While Rasmussen said he did not want to speculate about Putin’s immediate plans in Ukraine, he said the most likely situation was a continuation of the Russian strategy to undermine the country’s government.
“I wouldn’t exclude that he keeps open the option to intervene further at a later stage,” he said. “But my guess is that at this stage, he feels that he has achieved a lot through the destabilization of eastern Ukraine.”
It is Rasmussen’s final official visit to Washington as secretary-general.
Former Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg is to take over as the NATO head in October.
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