US troops on Russia’s backdoor, warmongering: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Bill Jones, a member of the Executive Intelligence Review, about the United States stepping up its military presence on Russia’s backdoor by deploying an additional armored brigade in Eastern Europe.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about this military surge?

Jones: This is a typical warmongering that is coming out of the Obama administration especially out of the NATO sections there, that it is a tit for tat. They beef up their military operations in Eastern Europe; they are getting a lot of signals especially from the Baltic countries which have always been anti-Russian to get more troops there.

There is no danger coming from Russia, Russia has reiterated this. There is no indication that they have any hostile intent toward the countries of Eastern Europe or the Baltic states but nevertheless they are beating the war drums for NATO to try and increase the military operations closer to Russian border and of course that is going to create a reaction on the Russian part on what they have to do to increase their own defense capabilities.

Press TV: And I wanted to ask you about this because this expansionism seems to be going unchecked at this point. So will there be an escalation? Will there be violence at some point?

Jones: Well the Russians have already increased their capabilities, kind of in an amazing way and I mean even some of the military people in NATO have been quite impressed with the modernization of the Russian military.

However, there is a countervailing force here that has to do with some of the divided opinions within the East European countries. Witness for instance, the recent visit of President Xi Jinping to the Czech Republic where the Czech Republic basically indicated that they would really want to participate with the Chinese and also with the Russians in terms of developing this economic project of the Silk Road Economic Belt and that is in direct contrast with what the United States is being urging them to do. So they feel that economic development and cooperation with the countries on their borders including Russia is much more beneficial to them than trying to start a war.

So I think in many of these countries especially those Eastern European countries that have been economically devastated, the idea of having a conflict with Russia is not very deep in the population and I think you are going to see a lot of things changing and what the Chinese are doing is certainly in collaboration with Russia which is a part of this project, is kind of lessening the tension and creating an alternative, an alternative to what NATO is trying to provoke.  

Press TV: And of course the arguments used against Russia are of course Ukraine and involvement in Syria. How do you feel about such arguments?  

Jones: Well look, what is that argument? Ukraine, they have come to an agreement, they have come to a Minsk agreement. All the parties were in agreement with that and it is the Ukrainian government which has been backtracking and even the IMF and others are highly critical of the continued corruption in Ukraine which was a basis of the problem to begin with.

The other thing with Syria, what did Russia do in Syria? Russia effectively prevented a greater development of the conflict by adding their own strength against the ISIL (Daesh) forces there, creating now situation of Palmyra. The world was outraged about what was happening in Palmyra and because of what the Russians have done in strengthening the anti-ISIL forces including the forces of the Syrian government, they have created a situation where ISIL is really being pushed back somewhat  now and where there is a possibility for bringing peace in the region and what Kerry and what Lavrov have done is really yeoman service in trying to create some kind of peace in that region and Russia has been an integral part of this and the people do not see this. They really have their blinders on.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir