DISINFO: NATO boosting its presence in the Baltic Sea to provoke Russia
SUMMARY
NATO is provoking Russia. The United States and its allies expand militarily in the Baltic Sea under the pretext of mythical threats from the east. About 20 warships from the Joint Expeditionary Force will be patrolling the area due to increased threats to critical underwater infrastructure coming from Russia, although the Nord Stream II pipeline was blown up by the Ukrainians, as the Germans have written. The anchor that damaged another pipeline was from a Chinese ship. But, for some reason, the Russians are to blame.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Russia poses no threat to its neighbours and accusing NATO of provoking Russia.
First of all, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is actually a United Kingdom-led expeditionary force which consists of Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. Nine of the countries are also members of NATO, with Sweden currently outside that alliance as their application is pending ratification. on November 29, 2023, it was announced that:
“Around twenty warships will be deployed in the Baltic Sea but also in areas of the North Atlantic to take into account the security situation and better protect crucial underwater infrastructure,” Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said on public channel SVT. It was a signal to Russia about the Allies’ decisiveness rather than a provocation or a threat".
Secondly, NATO is a defensive political and military alliance. The primary aim of the alliance is to maintain peace and safeguard the freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity of its member states.
Finally, Russia’s threats to its neighbours in the Baltic Sea are not mythical. Russia has threatened Finland, Sweden and the Baltic nations for years both militarily and otherwise. Russia attacked Georgia in 2008 under the pretext of protecting Russian citizens there. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and instigated a separatist revolt in some parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk Regions in 2014, accusing Ukraine of turning into a Nazi state. Soviet and consequently Russian troops have occupied Transnistria in the east of Moldova since 1990.
Read a similar case claiming that the US creates a NATO centre in Kazakhstan to provoke Russia as well as further disinformation cases targeting NATO.
This disinformation claim was broadcast on the date mentioned above. Due to the EU decisions to temporarily restrict the spread and dissemination of RT, Sputnik and other instruments used to manipulate information and promote disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine inside the EU, access to the link may not work inside the EU.