PUTIN VOWS MILITARY RESPONSE TO 'ELIMINATE NATO THREAT' IF SWEDEN JOINS U.S.-LED ALLIANCE

[deminks]

http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-vows-eliminate-nato-threat-sweden-joins-619486

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed deep opposition to the idea of Sweden joining NATO, calling its potential membership of the U.S.-led alliance a “threat” that would need to be “eliminated.”

“If Sweden joins NATO this will affect our relations in a negative way because we will consider that the infrastructure of the military bloc now approaches us from the Swedish side,” Putin told state news agency Itar-Tass. “We will interpret that as an additional threat for Russia and we will think about how to eliminate this threat.”

Russian officials have repeatedly treated NATO expansion near or at its borders as encroachment, rather than a desire by their smaller neighbors to deter Russian military incursion as sustained by Ukraine in 2014. Currently only Montenegro is on the list of countries to be inducted into NATO, as Sweden and neighbor Finland opt to stay non-aligned. Currently, three Baltic states and Poland are members of NATO on Russia's borders.

Last year Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Stockholm that Russia would take a military response to potential Swedish entry into NATO and on Thursday Putin elaborated on the extent of such a response.

(end snip)

Lavrov, the Russian guy yucking it up with Drumpf in the Oval Office without benefit of US press. I refer now to the Orange Menace as Lavrov's Dog.

[okieinpain]

1. so now this fool gets to tell another country what they can

or can not do.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. of course he does, another NATO member

threatens his plans to reconstitute the territory of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine and Crimea weren't aggression of course. (wink, wink)

Be interesting to see how fast FF45 back Putin's play.

[workinclasszero]

3. So here comes the big payoff for Putin getting Trump elected

and the infiltrated republican party in charge of America.

Trump will stand by and watch any Russian aggression in Europe and do nothing.

[atreides1]

10. Not so much infiltration

More money changing hands, then actual infiltration! Ryan and McConnell, got a big payoff...and most of the Republican leadership as well!!!

Just my opinion!!!

[workinclasszero]

11. Yes you are right

The republican party has made it crystal clear with their silence in the face of Trump's betrayal of this country that the one and only thing that matters to them is that the poor and working class in this country be stripped of their last penny and left to rot while the 1%er's receive that stolen money in the form of an obscene tax cut.

That is the ONLY THING those Putin cockholsters give a damn about! They are pure evil and they are TRAITORS!

They are a cancer on America and we as a country are in the terminal last stage right now!

[Mrs. Overall]

4. Is the US really leading NATO?

[Doodley]

5. By undermining NATO and siding with Russia, Trump has empowered Putin to do this.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Trump feckless and complicit.

We're not our friends' friend anymore thanks to this Trump bozo.
And unfortunately, we'll get everything we deserve for electing him.

(i know i know... "we" didn't vote for him, but "WE" did)

[Freethinker65]

7. ThanksTrump

[dalton99a]

8. Kick.

[spanone]

9. he's gonna take out Sweden?

trump would probably help the russians

[workinclasszero]

12. Or order our NATO troops to stand down while

huge Mother Russia threatens Sweden.

I'm sure Trumpenfuhrer would get a kick out of it. He loves murderous dictators after all.