US creates time bomb situation in Russia

The decades-old eastward expansion of the US-led NATO is a provocative act as it infringes upon Russia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, an analyst writes for Press TV.

“The US and its European NATO allies have embarked on a 25-year expansion towards Russia’s heartland… This expansion is provocative, aggressive and duplicitous because it … presents a military threat to Russia,” Finian Cunningham wrote in an article for the Press TV website.

He said “reckless goading by imperial powers across Europe” violates NATO’s commitments for not encroaching upon Russia’s territory.

“Russia has every right to feel threatened by ever-encroaching ballistic missile systems on its borders that could be used in a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the US and its allies,” the analyst wrote.

He added that US President Barack Obama’s commitment to his predecessor George W. Bush’s “first strike doctrine” raises worries.

“Yet, provocatively, Washington dismisses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s concerns about NATO expansion as if they the deliriums of a Soviet revanchist,” wrote Cunningham.

He said the US-backed “regime change and genocidal repression” in Ukraine threaten Russia’s interests.

“This is a powder-keg situation in Europe, led to by the US geopolitics and its European henchmen, and which is wrapped up in an explosive shell of ignorance by lying Western media,” Cunningham wrote.

On June 28, Moscow said Ukrainian troops have fired three shells into the Russian territory, causing damage but no casualties.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse the Kremlin of fuelling the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern regions by backing armed forces. Russia, however, has denied the allegations.