The Menace of Face-Off

"[Russian forces] along the entire perimeter of Russia's western border will be reinforced [in response to a buildup of U.S. heavy military equipment in the Baltics or Eastern Europe]."
"Russia won't have anything else to do but bolster its forces and resources on the western strategic theatre of operations."
Russian army General Yury Yakubov

RS-24 Yars (NATO reporting name SS-27 Mod 2) is a Russian MIRV-equipped, thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missile. Photo: Mobile ground-based system RS-24 Yars at the Teikovo missile force, Ivanovo region, 2011    © ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

"[Talks are underway] about the stationing of U.S. military equipment in Poland."
"We have been working for a while on increasing the American military presence in Poland and across the eastern flank of NATO."
"This all adds up to a growing presence of U.S. forces in Poland, and heavy equipment is significant as it is durable. If need be, it can be here for years or even decades."
"This is not an ad hoc response to a crisis. [A final decision would be taken] soon."
Tomasz Siemoniak, Polish defence minister

What to do when an overbearing menace of a neighbour threatens once again? A country, unlike a home-owner, cannot move away. But it can re-align its focus and reach a sovereign determination that leads it into another camp entirely, having had more than ample experience as a satellite-dependent of the assertive neighbour whose bullying tactics have rendered that relationship dysfunctional beyond acceptance.

The writing has long been on the wall, with former allies of the Soviet Union, absorbed in its stifling embrace for far too long, released from bondage and choosing to depart the union with unseemly alacrity, shifting themselves inexorably into the Western orb. Russia has been enormously displeased. And under its current leadership expresses its displeasure quite clearly. Not merely with words but actions as well, to the huge discomfort of all the countries whom it has chosen to harass.

Aside from the harassment of submarines where they don't belong, warplanes buzzing sovereign airspace, dire and dark warning of nuclear warheads, abductions and incitement of rebels to seize territories to join them with Greater Russia, enabling Moscow to reclaim geography it has no legal international right to absorb into its territory in an ongoing blitz of intimidation in eastern Europe, Vladimir Putin bristles at the insult to Russian dignity brought on by NATO and EU sanctions.

RS-24 Yars was first tested on May 29, 2007. Some reports say it can carry up to 10 independently targetable warheads    © ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

For their part, the Baltic nations and the rest of Eastern Europe, let alone the West view Russian enterprise as ruinous to world peace; hugely unsettling, at the very least. And since Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are allies of the United States and members of NATO, the nervous tension resulting from the trauma Ukraine is suffering symbolic of the vulnerability of the others has resulted in a warning to Russia to cease and desist.

Topol-M is a cold-launched, three-stage, solid-propellant ICBM. Its mass at launch is 47,200 kg and maximum range is 10,500 km. Photo: Topol-M involved in a rehearsal for V-Day Parade, at the Alabino Training Range near Moscow, 2008   © ITAR-TASS/Marina Lystseva

U.S. authorities have put forward a proposal to place weapons and vehicles in the countries involved and this inevitably has resulted in a race to build up arms at the Russia-Europe border should the situation continue to escalate. The fortification of military assets in Eastern Europe as planned will result in a matching buildup by Russia. Former Soviet republic countries have urged NATO to strengthen its resources in the area.

The annexation of Crimea dealt a heavy blow to their dreams of complete separation from their neighbour; the Soviet-era exchange of ethnic groups now sees Russians living in former satellite states purportedly as an endangered species, according to a protective Vladimir Putin, responding to the anguish of Russian speakers in Eastern Europe who must be 'protected from violations of their human rights'.

Russia is prepared to respond to any such U.S. move, according to General Yakubov, by outfitting its missile brigade in Kaliningrad "with new Iskander tactical missile systems", along with alterations to its defence interests in Belarus. The mobile ballistic missile Iskander, capable of delivering a conventional or a nuclear warhead is no toy.

Iskander missile    © Dmitry Rogulin/TASS