NATO targets Russia through Ukraine: Analyst

Crisis in Ukraine is part of NATO’s plan to expand its borders across Europe as far away as Russia, an analyst says, as the military alliance beefs up its presence at Russia’s border.

In a column for the Press TV website, Tony Cartalucci said the NATO agenda “is and always was about the expansion of Europe and the containment of Russia.”

He said the Western governments wrongly claim that they are “reacting to Russian aggression” against Ukraine, adding, “It was clear from the beginning that the US and the EU through NATO were creating unrest in an attempt to foster regime change in Kiev.”

Cartalucci added that NATO-funded think tanks supporting “the unelected regime” in Ukraine “have been directing unrest within Russia as well.”

The analyst also drew a parallel between NATO’s actions in Ukraine and former German dictator Adolf Hitler’s 1938 attacks on neighboring countries under the pretext of liberty.

“So what is NATO doing with Nazi militants in Ukraine? The same thing Adolf Hitler was doing – establishing ‘breathing room’,” wrote Cartalucci.

He described the prevailing crisis in Ukraine as “the premeditated destabilization and overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine, and a resulting and continuously escalating confrontation with Russia.”

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said on Thursday that Russia’s actions in Ukraine have forced the Western military alliance to treat Russia as more of an enemy than a partner.

Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Ukraine’s former Black Sea peninsula of Crimea joined the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16.