Primetime Russian broadcaster believes all US military bases in Europe should be vacated in favour of Russia
One of the Kremlin’s principal ‘propagandists has defended that Russia should occupy all the United States’ military bases in Europe, to ensure the bloc can never again pose a threat to Russia.
In a video shared over social media by Eastern European Nexta, Vladimir Solovyov, said that Moscow “should capture North American bases in Germany, Italy and Portugal (meaning the Lajes airbase on Terceira island, in the Azores).
It is the only way, in Solovyov’s opinion, to guarantee that Europe “will behave in a very decent fashion” to Russia in future.
The novel plan has been picked up by the UK’s Daily Express, which dubs what it calls Solovyov’s ‘furious rant’ as “a terrifying warning”.
Solovyov remarks that “it is perfectly possible to occupy part of the military bases that were prepared for the Americans in western Europe. We could very well be stationed in a series of bases in Italy. But Ramstein (Germany) could be our base”.
These kind of bellicose ideas and opinions are not ‘new’ to Russian television, which is the domain of pro-Putin broadcasters. But the segment comes as elsewhere arguably more measured sources suggest Vladimir Putin is preparing for a future “large scale war with NATO”.
This information comes from respected think-tank ISW, the Institute for the Study of War, which “provides research and analysis regarding issues of defense and foreign affairs”.
The ISW stresses that at the beginning of this month Putin “threatened Finland and the wider NATO alliance”, again on Russian television – this time the Rossiya 1 State channel.
In this sense, the Russian military is currently restructuring the Western Military District (WMD) to reform the Leningrad Military District (LMD) and the Moscow Military District (MMD) “as part of a long-term restructuring and expansion effort aimed at preparing Russia for a potential large-scale conventional war against NATO”.
“The DMO is responsible for the Russian border with NATO members Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, but has been largely engaged in fighting in Ukraine, where it has suffered significant losses,” the ISW emphasises.
As the Daily Express recalls, US President Joe Biden warned earlier this month: “if Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there“, adding that a Russian attack on allies could result in “American troops fighting Russian troops”.
But, at the time, President Putin was quick to dismiss Biden’s claims, arguing that Russia has “no interest” in attacking NATO.
This far, Mr Putin has not mentioned anything about occupying US military bases in Europe, either.
Source material: ZAP/ Lusa/ Daily Express
