Her information warfare narrative is designed solely to scare the Western public into blindly supporting their leaders’ aggressive actions aimed at ‘containing’ Russia and ultimately eroding its nuclear second-strike capabilities so as to place Moscow in a perpetual position of nuclear blackmail, which President Putin would never accept.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is lying through her teeth by warning that “We need to stop Putin because he won’t stop at Ukraine…The Baltic States are at risk…the Western Balkans as well.” The Russian leader never said “that he wants to create the Greater Russia, that he wants to go back to the situation as it was before where Russia had control over huge swathes of Eastern Europe” like she alleged. This is literally fake news and deserves to be immediately debunked.
The undeclared US–provoked missile crisis in Europe is due to America gradually eroding Russia’s nuclear second-strike capabilities through NATO’s expansion; its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (AMB), Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and Open Skies Treaty; the deployment of “anti-missile systems” and strike weapons closer to Russia’s border; and related violations of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and 1997 Russian-NATO Founding Act.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself expressed such concerns during an “Expanded Meeting of the Defense Ministry Board” on 21 December. Russian intelligence also suspects that the initiation of a third round of civil war hostilities in Donbass by Kiev or Western mercenaries there could serve as the pretext for the US to deploy the earlier described systems closer to Russia’s border for the purpose that was already explained.
The second-mentioned suspicions aren’t mere speculation either since even former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tweeted that “Ukraine’s 200,000-strong soldiers…help to deter Putin”, which adds credence to Russia’s concerns about them massing along the line of contact in Donbass. With this in mind, Russia’s ongoing military exercises on its own territory and in allied Belarus can be seen as defensive moves designed to deter Kiev for initiating a third round of civil war hostilities in Donbass.
Nevertheless, the Anglo-American Axis has largely succeeded in manipulating global opinion to the point of misportraying those drills as so-called “unprovoked aggression” and supposedly as practice for a “Russian invasion of Ukraine”. This distracts the public from the fact that the crisis is actually a Russian-US missile one and not a Russian-Ukrainian territorial crisis over Donbass or that entire former Soviet Republic.
The resultant hysteria about a “Russian invasion of Ukraine” has created fertile ground for folks like Truss to fearmonger that President Putin plans to invade the Baltics and Balkans next. That’s completely unrealistic though since Russia’s national security red lines don’t extend to those NATO members unless the US deploys enough “anti-missile systems” and strike weapons there to risk neutralizing its nuclear second-strike capabilities. Even if that happens, missiles – not troops – would suffice for defending itself.
Furthermore, NATO’s ballyhooed Article 5 means that the US would assuredly respond in the most decisive manner if Russia were to “invade” its Baltic and/or Balkan members, which Moscow is keenly aware of. It doesn’t have any reason to take over those territories anyhow where many of the locals have come to fiercely hate Russia due to years of incessant US-led Western information warfare against that Eurasian Great Power, to say nothing of historical animosities among some like the Poles.
Truss can’t explain why Russia would “invade” the Baltics and/or Balkans other than falsely claim that President Putin previously talked about some political fantasy to that effect. Her information warfare narrative is designed solely to scare the Western public into blindly supporting their leaders’ aggressive actions aimed at “containing” Russia and ultimately eroding its nuclear second-strike capabilities so as to place Moscow in a perpetual position of nuclear blackmail, which President Putin would never accept.
It’s one thing for a politician to share an antagonistic talking point and another entirely for a country’s top diplomat to fearmonger on a completely false basis like Truss just did. She’s clearly unqualified for her prestigious position and brings shame to the UK’s diplomatic traditions, which were previously regarded as setting the standard across the world in centuries past, for better or for worse. Her patriotic compatriots should publicly condemn her if they truly care about their country’s international image.