Putin Vows Military Response To 'Eliminate NATO Threat' If Sweden Joins U.S.-Led Alliance

[DonViejo]

Source: Newsweek



BY DAMIEN SHARKOV ON 6/2/17 AT 5:25 AM

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. “This does not quite mean that we will become hysterical and we will aim our nuclear missiles at Sweden,” Putin said. “But we will be obliged to undertake something because we see this as an additional threat to Russia.”



Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-vows-eliminate-nato-threat-sweden-joins-619486?utm_source=internal&utm_campaign=right&utm_medium=related1

[hlthe2b]

1. What a time to be saddled with Trump. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn

Putin is totally emboldened.

[atreides1]

3. And

It looks as if Putin was the one who assisted in the US being saddled with Trump! The breaking up of NATO has been a Russian wet dream for, first the Soviet Union and now the Russian Federation!

All the Russians had to was to find the people who could be bought...and they found the dupes they were looking for...people who were more then willing to put their lust for power and money, over their love of country...Trump, McConnell, Ryan and probably every Republican in Congress and the executives of the RNC!!!

[Kittycow]

5. Jesus. Here we go.

My first thought.

[gibraltar72]

2. Surely

he meant alliance lead by America of Syria and Nicaragua. We ceded leadership in everything else.

[awesomerwb1]

8. Don't count on Nicaragua

Apparently they may decide to sign in to the Accord because they don't wanna be on cheeto's side on this one.

[NCjack]

12. You are correct. Mr. Trump's lawyer needs to send Putin a letter demanding that he

stop up-grading Mr. Trump's importance by referring to him as a leader. And, if he persists, he will be sued by Mr. Trump. The judgments will be so bigly that Putin will live the rest of life in poverty.

[DBoon]

4. Expect Trump to denounce Sweden

In a late night tweet

He does what his master says

[Moostache]

9. Does anyone believe that Trump making shit up about Sweden last month was an accident?

If you do, then I have some wonderful property in the Everglades to sell you...

[LisaM]

11. No, I didn't, and worse...

I feel as if he had some advance notice of the incidents that did take place (or, more probably, someone put a bug in his ear). I thought it was really disturbing.

[Control-Z]

14. Wait. What? I have no clue what

this is about. Or I don't remember. Maybe I'm just no longer able keep up with all the lies.

What did the maggot say about Sweden last month?

[Moostache]

16. He literally made up a terrorist attack in "Sweden" and talked about it in a speech

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/19/politics/trump-rally-sweden/

[Control-Z]

19. Thank you.

Clearly I'm not keeping up. I didn't hear about this or didn't listen closely enough to recognize it as an entirely new accusation by the filthy maggot.

[Rustyeye77]

6. Ooooogaa Booogaaa

this guy is a real pita....pain in the ass.

[awesomerwb1]

7. Really Pootie Poo? You're afraid of Sweden now?

Bring out the Swedish bikini team!

Seriously though, What a scary and inappropriate thing to say about the nuclear missiles. WTF??

[7962]

18. Well, the Russians couldnt defeat Finland in WW2, so maybe he is afraid! nt

[Igel]

23. Putin couches his language often in the past.

He's the defender of the legacy of Kievan Rus', the heir to the numbered Ivans. In a way, the Horde bequeathed Russia with a special Eurasian identity and his kind preens over, but undoing the oppression of the Horde was a great thing.

Sweden was a historic foe of Russia.

So was Poland, because of the Times of Troubles and events afterwards, not to mention Polish independence from Russia after the Revolution and their battles with the likes of Budennyi (Lenin was a big one for keeping the Russian Empire, even as he was billed as anti-imperialist; his anti-imperialist rhetoric was reserved for everybody but his allies).

Lots in the US, mostly not on the right, decided to focus on the "fascist" Ukrainians back in 2013 and their historical antecedents, all of which were Banderovtsi according to many here, formed for the sole purpose of helping the Wehrmacht exterminate Jews. It fit the Russian narrative, used the buzz word "fascist" to trigger a knee-jerk response, and made non-hostility to Russia acceptable. Of course, that was before Russia became truly evil and it was still okay to speak of Ukrainian gays, Jews, atheists, and socialists as "fascists" if they liked NATO and the EU. (To their credit, many considered Russia a geopolitical foe back in 2008 and 2012, but only at the risk of being called a rethuglican or worse.) The situation in Ukraine was complex, with overtly fascist (in the sense of totalitarian ethnic-purist racist thugs) on both sides, but political views whitewashed those into "one side's fascist and Ukrainian, the others are Russian liberation fighters".

Make your theory as simple as possible, but not simpler than possible. When you need to add complications, you must add them.

Putin's been sabre-rattling for 10 years or more. Much has been ignored because it was convenient to do so. The mention of military opposition was deemed unwarranted Western sabre-rattling; response was provocation. Now we're oversensitized and see all things as new when they're not. This is more of the same. The only difference is that we now have a 25-year record of allowing ever-larger provocations to pass relatively unchallenged, instead of a 17-year record of ever-larger provocations to pass relatively unchallenged. Transdnistria, Abkhazia, Serbia, Ossetia/Georgia, constant provocations playing with Europe's gas supply and treating the Russian economy as a weapon.

I, for one, think that it was a serious mistake to give the USSR formerly German territory as part of war reparations at the end of WWII. Imagine the outcry if part of Germany had been given to Britain and all the Germans forced out.

[Scalded Nun]

10. Sweden needs to join ASAP

This bully needs to be called on his bullshit. If NATO blinks on this they will be blinking forever.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. +1 on all three sentences

{excerpt}

Sweden needs to join ASAP
This bully needs to be called on his bullshit. If NATO blinks on this they will be blinking forever.

{/excerpt}

[Turbineguy]

13. Trump will not respond to Russian aggresssion.

We can be sure of that.

[left-of-center2012]

17. Trump will go golfing

Or to McDonald's for a couple Big Macs.

[C_U_L8R]

15. Where's President Orangestain?

Off playing golf... again?

[sinkingfeeling]

20. Hey, Vlad, it's a great deal. Sweden joins NATO and the US exits

the alliance. You used to have something to fear from US military might. Sweden, not so much.

[harun]

22. Trump would like the US to join Russia and make the "Supreme Oligarch Union".

[MedusaX]

21. Vlad is turning up the heat on *45...trying to wring as much from his orange sponge as he can before

Either
Shit hits the fan here or
Vlad decides to cut him loose....

Someone, hopefully, is keeping a very close watch for any EO's being signed in the wee hours ...
under cover of darkness and
With the guidance of unpaid advisors....

People are now conditioned to expect grand signing ceremonies for every EO... regardless of content.

Which means the most significant EO's will likely be signed while no one is around...

and then promptly misplaced
accidentally on purpose
until the "effects" of such EO's become apparent
Like
drilling in the Arctic
Loans signed with banks thought to be under sanction

When questions finally do arise, *45 will simply shrug & grin .......

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. This is a test of tRump's quid pro quo payback to Putin. 3 options for tRump.

1) Support and encourage Sweden. Unlikely.

2) Denounce Sweden and NATO. More likely.

3) Punt and refuse to comment. Most likely and still it would be some payback to Putin for helping the RepubliCons steal the Electoral College.

[angrychair]

26. Fuck it

It's about time...let's skip to trump/Putin love scene ending when the world gets blown up. Dragged this out to long anyway. It's worse than the remake of "Dirty Dancing". Do it already!

End of the World Party at my house, BYOB/BYOD and don't forget to tip your waiters and waitresses!



Donuts in the morning if we are still here:

[world wide wally]

27. Since fucking when is the US aligned with Russia against the UK, France, Sweeden and Germany?

This is where your ancestors are from for the most part you fucking Trump Surrender Monkeys