President Vladimir Putin’s assurance that Russia does not plan to attack any other country will not change many minds here at the Nato headquarters in Brussels. They will simply point to the seizure of the Crimea and the Russian military’s continuing support for the rebels in eastern Ukraine as a sure sign of Moscow’s growing assertiveness. Mr Putin also says that the Russian military threat is being exaggerated in the West to justify increased military spending. Well there is certainly a good deal of hyperbole in some sections of the Western media. The transit of the small naval task force led by Russia’s sole and ageing aircraft carrier – the Admiral Kuznetsov – through the English Channel, for example, sent many British newspapers into a spin.
NATO sends a message to Russia
