Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland

I found this particularly interesting because I am expecting some serious tensions as this financial debacle unravels. Oh, and nukes are scary.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/6480227/Russia-simulates-nuclear-attack-on-Poland.html

Quote :

The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which
nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing
on the country's coast.

Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland's leading news magazines,
said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from
Belarus.

The manoeuvres are thought to have been held in September and involved about 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops.

Poland, which has strained relations with both countries, was cast as the "potential aggressor".

The documents state the exercises, code-named "West", were officially
classified as "defensive" but many of the operations appeared to have
an offensive nature.

The Russian air force practised using weapons from its nuclear arsenal,
while in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which neighbours Poland,
Red Army forces stormed a "Polish" beach and attacked a gas pipeline.

The operation also involved the simulated suppression of an uprising by
a national minority in Belarus – the country has a significant Polish
population which has a strained relationship with authoritarian
government of Belarus.

Karol Karski, an MP from Poland's Law and Justice, is to table
parliamentary questions on Russia's war games and has protested to the
European Commission.

His colleague, Marek Opiola MP, said: "It's an attempt to put us in our
place. Don't forget all this happened on the 70th anniversary of the
Soviet invasion of Poland."

Ordinary Poles were outraged by news of the exercise and demanded a firm response fro the government.

One man, identified only as Ted, told Polskie Radio: "Russia has laid
bare its real intentions with respect to Poland. Every Pole most now
get of the off the fence and be counted as a patriot or a traitor."

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, has tried to build a pragmatic
relationship with the Kremlin despite widespread and vocal calls in
Poland for him to cool ties with Moscow.

After spending 40 years under Soviet domination few in Poland trust
Russia, and many Poles have become increasingly wary of a country they
consider as possessing a neo-imperialistic agenda.

Bogdan Klich, Poland’s defence minister, said: “It is a demonstration
of strength. We are monitoring the exercises to see what has been
planned.

Wladyslaw Stasiak, chief of President Lech Kaczynski’s office, and a
former head of Poland’s National Security Council, added: “We didn’t
like the appearance of the exercises and the name harked back to the
days of the Warsaw Pact.”

The Russian troop exercises will come as an unwelcome sight to the
states nestling on Russia’s western border who have deep-rooted
anxieties over any Russian show of strength.

With a resurgent Moscow now more willing to flex its muscles, Central
and Eastern Europeans have warned of Russia adopting a
neo-imperialistic attitude to an area of the world it still regards as
its sphere of influence.

In July, the region’s most famed and influential political figures,
including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, wrote an open letter Barack
Obama warning him that Russia “is back as a revisionist power pursuing
a 19th-century agenda with 21st-century tactics and methods.”

Moscow and Minsk have insisted that Operation West was to help "ensure the strategic stability in the East European region".

Is Russia acting to give Obama the excuse to follow tthrough on putting a nuke missile base in Poland? This won't be for US hegemony. I think the saber rattling between US and Russia is being stirred to cultivate the need for future disarmament ...... and turning over US and Russian nukes to the UN or NATO.

Quote :

Pushing Missile Defense in Europe
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5005

With the occupation of Iraq soon to enter its sixth year and the looming
possibility of war against Iran, it’s easy for Americans not to notice
the Bush administration’s attempt to expand the U.S. military presence
in Europe. A new Cold War between the United States and Russia
threatens. And the U.S. media is paying little attention.

Even many in the peace movement don’t know that Washington has proposed to
install 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar military base in
the Czech Republic. The missiles and radar taken together constitute an
anti-missile system purportedly meant to defend against Iran and other
“rogue” states. In fact, they represent a new expansion of U.S. global
military power and an escalation of the arms race with Russia.

Opposition to the proposed U.S. installations, however, is gathering
force within Poland and the Czech Republic. And even the U.S. Congress
has shown a measure of skepticism. The expansion of U.S. military
presence in Eastern Europe is far from a done deal.

* rest of article at link *

IP wrote:

Is Russia acting to give Obama the excuse to follow tthrough on putting a nuke missile base in Poland? This won't be for US hegemony. I think the saber rattling between US and Russia is being stirred to cultivate the need for future disarmament ...... and turning over US and Russian nukes to the UN or NATO.

My thoughts exactly.