Russian War Games Spill Secrets, Spur Neighbors; 'Scared the Hell Out of NATO'

[Purveyor]

By Leon Mangasarian and Ott Ummelas Nov 21, 2014 7:19 AM ET

Russian jets probing NATO airspace and supersized war drills are spilling Kremlin military secrets and scaring European nations into stiffening their armed forces.

Allied jets “have been scrambled over 400 times” this year to intercept Russian planes -- a 50 percent rise over 2013, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday. A report by the European Leadership Network, a London-based security research group, termed the incidents “a highly disturbing picture of violations of national airspace” and “narrowly avoided mid-air collisions.”

Yet there are benefits for NATO.

“Clearly, every time we come into contact with Russian forces and every time we see their tactics and how they deploy, we do learn about them,” U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, the 28-member NATO’s top military commander, said in Tallinn on Nov. 19. “They are just happening more often and occasionally, the size of the activities is larger.”

A worsening standoff is pitting Europe and the U.S. against Russia over Ukraine in the biggest crisis since the Cold War’s end 25 years ago. Even German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier -- a persistent proponent of dialog -- said on Nov. 18 after shuttle diplomacy in Kiev and Moscow, that he sees little reason for optimism.

‘Scared’ NATO

“The rapid mobilization of 20,000 to 40,000 Russian troops at the Ukrainian border scared the hell out of NATO,” Karl-Heinz Kamp, academic director at the German government’s Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin, said by phone.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-20/russia-s-war-games-spill-secrets-stiffen-nato-resolve.html

[geek tragedy]

1. Russia is fundamentally the same as it was 300 years ago.

So we have this kind of behavior to expect from them for a few hundred more.

[go west young man]

2. Of course it is.....look at those 300 year old skyscrapers..

HD Copter video of the new Moskva City...absolutely beautiful skyscrapers just built in Moscow. Is it possible success stories like this one are why the US really wants to curb Russias growth?

And if you doubt Russias growth under Putin.....check out Grozny now after Putin and Russias best architects rebuilt the city.