Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov handed a draft agreement to NATO demanding a ban on "significant military forces" in states that joined since the Soviet breakup in 1991, according to a report in Kommsersant. That happened in December last year, the paper said. It cited an unidentified NATO official as saying the language could be too vague.
Are the Russians serious? Fortunately, nobody seems foolish enough to go along with this idea:
Any move to limit troops in countries that originally joined NATO to throw off Moscow's domination, including the Czech Republic and Poland, looks likely to be met with resistance.
You have to love the Russian logic: NATO is too much of a threat to Russia to let NATO deploy to eastern NATO countries; but Russia is too little of a threat to NATO to justify deploying NATO forces to new NATO members worried about Russia's desire to restore the old Soviet empire.
They are a persistent bunch in Moscow. We can't allow the idea that some NATO members are less deserving of collective defense than others. I'd like to see us store equipment sets for heavy armor in Poland.
Tell Moscow to take a hike and maybe worry a little bit about China. Good luck seeing if China will agree to limit PLA deployments to Manchuria.
