NATO military experts have shed crocodile tears into the vest of Western public opinion. The American think tank Atlantic Council, associated with NATO, the State Department and the US intelligence services, presented a report the other day, which is actively quoted by the English Financial Times, the BBC radio and television broadcasting corporation, as well as the Baltic publications. Among them is the Russian-language portal Delfi. The meaning of this report is extremely simple - in their current state, the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance are allegedly unable to defend the eastern borders of the EU "in the face of an increasingly aggressive-minded Russia." The reasons, which could not even be doubted, are obvious - the "chronic underfunding" of NATO and the "acute shortage" of modern military equipment in the armed forces of the countries that make up the alliance.
The report, for example, notes that out of 31 Tiger helicopters in service with the Bundeswehr, only 10 are suitable for use, and out of 406 Marder infantry fighting vehicles (BMP), only 280 can be used there. Other countries participating in the alliance are not enough moved forward in changing their defensive positions to the east. The UK is particularly bad, the report says. It became a very serious problem for her to deploy a brigade in a state of constant combat readiness, not to mention a division. Last year, in order to support one of the NATO exercises in Europe, she had to move tanks from the west of Canada, "because the situation with spare parts and naval support in the UK is extremely deplorable" …
And all this against the background of the fact that, according to the report, “according to not the most optimistic estimates, after 10 years of growth in military spending and ambitious, far-reaching reforms of the former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia now has enough soldiers on urgent service (excluding the mobilization reserve) in order to support three major operations simultaneously: an offensive in the Baltic states, military operations in Poland and blocking government forces in eastern Ukraine."
CHEAP OVERSEAN INTRIGUES
Let's leave aside the attempt by the Atlantic Council to reduce Russian military reforms only to the personality of the former defense minister, as if the current head of the Russian military department, who has been actively working to increase the combat readiness of the army and navy for the past four years, has nothing to do with it. God bless them - cheap overseas intriguers. We will not pay attention to the obvious nonsense - as if the number of soldiers in urgent service determines the potential capabilities of our army (by the way, today there are much less of them than contract soldiers - 275 thousand versus 320). Including provocative horror stories - about our offensive in the Baltic States, battles in Poland and blocking government troops in Ukraine. Tired of repeating that our army has no such plans and is not foreseen. But here, as they say, spit in the eyes - all the dew of God.
Only now it is impossible not to be surprised at NATO's lack of funds to contain "Russian aggression". You read these lamentations and wonder: where, one wonders, the taxpayers' money from 28 Western countries go, and this is no less, but almost 750 billion dollars.- the aggregate military budget of NATO member states (10 times more than, for example, the military budget of Russia), if the command of the alliance, like the heads of the military departments of the participating countries, is not able to provide their armed forces with the most basic for these billions? Including spare parts for helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.
I remember that we, Russian journalists, who repeatedly visited the headquarters of the alliance, were regularly told how great the logistics service was at NATO. All components for one or another military equipment are included in special computer files. In warehouses in the same Germany or Belgium, their monthly stock is stored. Should any army send a request to the central office with a request to send an engine of the brand of such and such to an armored personnel carrier in service with such and such a brigade in such and such a settlement, as in two or three hours (distances in Europe are short) the engine will be delivered exactly to the address and immediately installed on the combat vehicle. All this was served under the following sauce: they say, learn, guys, how to organize the supply and maintenance of your troops at the modern level. Not like in your army, where for six months, if not more, approvals and expectations are underway for some missing bolt for a tank gun.
We listened and were surprised: yes, this is Europe, NATO! We, the sire and the poor, are up to them, as to heaven. And here it turns out that everything is not so, that everything is bad, so bad that there is nowhere else to go.
LIE - DO NOT DRAG BAGS
It is impossible to believe in such a thing. And I would not have believed it if it were not for the authors of the report. Among them - former secretary general of the alliance Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former deputy supreme commander of NATO forces in Europe, British General Richard Schirreff and ex-minister of defense of Italy and chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Giampaolo di Paola … what is going on in their "office" and why they are chronically short of money. Is it really scary to think that they steal into NATO? Or maybe its officials spend the money of European and American taxpayers, as they say, not for their intended purpose - not to protect them from the "Russian threat", not on the development, production and purchase of the most modern military equipment and combat support systems, but on some extraneous things? Like the construction in the suburbs of the Belgian capital of a new ultra-modern building made of glass and concrete for the headquarters of the alliance, very much like a crab or a spider, sucking blood or juices from the Old Continent.
But let's not talk about sad things.
One thing is not clear how this "overseas lament of Yaroslavna" from the analytical report of the Atlantic Council on the extremely vulnerable weakness of the North Atlantic Alliance in the face of the "Russian military threat" fits in with the assurances of the commander of the European Command of the US Armed Forces and the Supreme Command of the United NATO Forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, which he spoke before the United States Congress, about the full readiness of the forces of the alliance to fight in Europe with Russia and defeat it. There must be one thing: either - or. As they say in our yard, you guys, either take off the cross, or put on your panties.
Of course, it is gratifying that the former and current leaders of NATO give a high assessment of the combat power of the Russian Armed Forces. True, even without them we know that our army and navy are something of themselves. The very fact that the United States was forced to sign the Treaty on Measures for the Limitation and Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms (START-3) with Russia, thus recognizing that the security of our country and the security of the States are identical, testifies to real respect for our ability to inflict unacceptable damage to the likely enemy. And the recent joint statement by Moscow and Washington on the cessation of hostilities in Syria also convincingly proves that the United States was impressed by the actions of our aerospace and naval group in this Arab republic, which helped the Syrian government army to almost completely free it from terrorists banned in Russia "Islamic State" and "Dzhebhat al-Nusra", as well as other militants of the provinces of Latakia, Aleppo and Homs. And although they do not abandon attempts to replay this situation or use our successes on the Syrian front to their own advantage, President Barack Obama's recognition of the strength of the "second world army", although no one in our country is misleading, is in any case indicative. Especially after he tried to belittle the role of Russia in the modern world, calling it a regional power.
OPEN SECRET
And a tangle of blatantly contradictory statements by Western politicians, generals and admirals, where, on the one hand, there is a real assessment of the combat power of the Russian Armed Forces, on the other hand, ridiculous fantasies about their aggressive nature (judging, apparently, by themselves), on the third, readiness to fight and to defeat our country and - on the fourth - lamenting about the impossibility of doing this, since NATO does not have enough forces, modern military equipment, and most importantly - financial resources, it has long been a Punchinelle secret and is explained surprisingly simply - by the desire to warm his hands or, in other words, to make money on a foul-smelling product - the "Russian military threat." Every time a discussion of the military budget for a new financial year begins in the United States, which, by the way, begins on October 1, in the press, on television, in the publications of various think tanks, in the speeches of the Defense Ministers, the NATO Secretary General, and other interested persons, one and the same theme - give money, more and more money. Otherwise the Russians will come, and everyone will be oh, how bad it is!
This groan is heard both in the US and in Europe. The 2014 NATO Welsh Summit decided to allocate 2% of the GDP of each member of the alliance to the overall budget of the organization. Do you think they blamed everything and immediately transferred the required amount to the NATO purse? No matter how it is. Only two states - Estonia and Greece - have made such a contribution. Moreover, Athens, apparently, disposed of the loan that the EU allocated to them to save the economy of Hellas. And, of course, no one in the alliance even noticed a penny from 2% of Estonian GDP. But the rest of the countries - Lithuania, Latvia, the same Poland and even Germany - fluctuated around 1% of GDP. Reasonably calculating that the United States will pay for them. Almost 80% of NATO's budget is American money. Why waste yours if there is a kind Yankee uncle who will pay for everything if he wants to rule Europe ?! A very advantageous position.
And therefore think tanks, overseas, on this side of the Atlantic, can compose whatever they want. Involve any politicians and generals in writing their reports. Retired or active. They can shed as many crocodile tears as they want - oh, poor, poor, poor NATO! Oops … not today tomorrow the Russians will attack, and we have nothing to protect the orphans - the Baltic countries, unhappy Poland and the undressed and unkempt government troops of Ukraine …
How all this reminds me of a funny old Odessa song: “Mom, Mom, what are we going to do when the cold weather comes again? You don't have a winter coat. I don't have a winter coat."
Amazing! Respectable people in the West, one might say, the military and political elite, sing it from year to year, like clowns in a circus arena, and do not blush at all. Yes?!
However, real clowns have nothing to do with it. The author did not want to offend them.
