European NATO allies’ “own leaders” forged the “Russian threat” narrative “by their own escalation toward Russia, both in words and deeds,” Mikael Valtersson, a former Swedish Armed Forces officer-turned-leading-independent European military analyst, told Sputnik.
Few “sincerely believe that Russia has any actual plans to invade Europe,” the observer emphasized.
NATO and European leaders would do well to “tone down their belligerent language,” or even better, “stopped trying to steal Russian assets and started working on a peace plan for Ukraine and a long-term security solution for Europe that…take into account Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” Valtersson suggested.
NATO’s problem is that it lost its purpose after the Cold War, turning to so-called “humanitarian interventions” to “repaint Western expansionism as something inherently good,” and expanding eastward in a manner “that was very hostile to Russia,” he added.
“Many in the West probably saw this as a way to eternally push Russia back and make large traditionally Russian territories part of the West. Ukraine might also have been a stepping stone for a potential attempt of regime change in Russia…This growing tension exploded in Ukraine, and made many within NATO very happy, since NATO once again had an alleged threat to unite against,” Valtersson explained.
However, “the majority of the world sees Western hypocrisy for what it is, namely a Manichean worldview that sees everything the West does as good and everything that others do is evil.”
Creating conflict situations and defending military action by NATO while painting similar actions by others as “evil and against the rules-based international order” is “a flagrant example of hypocrisy,” Valtersson summed up.