PRESS RELEASE
German General Kujat: Russia Is a Strategic Partner, Not a Target for Escalation under the Pretext of ‘Deterrence’
WIESBADEN, July 10, 2016 (EIRNS)—Going into the NATO summit in Warsaw numerous German strategic figures have sharply criticized the use of NATO to force a spiral of escalation with Russia. Former NATO Military Committee Chairman (2002-05) Gen. Harald Kujat (ret.) has given numerous interviews in the last days criticizing NATO’s concept of "deterrence" to declare Russia as an enemy, despite the NATO Russia Act of 1997 which considers Russia a strategic partner. He was quoted July 9 in a commentary headlined "Enough Deterred" posted by the TV investigative program "Panorama," that the NATO Baltic deployment would be nothing if Russia had invasion intentions, "which all experts agree" is not the case:
"The so-called Spearhead, the NATO Rapid Reaction Force, which is to be expanded, doesn’t change that. ’The rapid reaction force would always come too late’ said former NATO Gen. Harald Kujat. ’It would even come too late to the Russian victory parade.’"
Former German Ambassador Frank Elbe, a harsh critic of the failure to work with Russia stated on the July 7 TV talkshow "Phoenix Runde" that NATO has become "arrogant" when, in fact, it should merely be a "service organization of its member states" instead of "trying to become autonomous" from its members which are the actual sovereigns, the member states. In the broadcast he addressed the role of West in creating the Ukraine crisis:
"When the U.S. organizes a putsch, co-organizing and financing it, then you shouldn’t be surprised that there is a corresponding reaction to that."
As early as 2007, he had said already that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had warned the U.S. against provoking a civil war in Ukraine.
Although resistance to NATO provocations is overt among Germany’s elite, their Achilles’ heel was seen at the July 1 founding meeting in Berlin, of Vladimir Yakunin’s Dialogue of Civilizations (DOC) Research Institute, where none of the speakers, including the Germans, emphasized the need for a positive Eurasian economic cooperation program, including Russia and China, along the lines of the Schiller Institute program for the New Silk Road Land-Bridge as elaborated at its own June 25-26 Berlin conference.
With Deutsche Bank now identified by the International Monetary Fund as the most dangerous bank for the world financial system, whose share value collapse last week has now opened discussion of a near-term meltdown, nobody in Germany, including those braking an escalation against Russia, are for now prepared with a strategy to deal with that eventuality.
