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    Bruits de bottes en Europe orientale

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    Pentagon poised to store heavy weapons in Baltic and Eastern Europe - NYT | Reuters
    ▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/13/us-usa-military-europe-idUSKBN0OT0TR20150613

    The Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, to deter any possible further Russian aggression in Europe, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

    Citing U.S. and allied officials, the newspaper said that if approved the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence.

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    Nato rebukes Putin’s ’nuclear rhetoric’
    ▻https://euobserver.com/defence/129144

    Nato has accused Russia of “nuclear sabre-rattling” after Vladimir Putin said he’ll deploy 40 new missiles.
    The Russian leader made the announcement on Tuesday (16 June) at an arms fair in Kubinka, near Moscow.

    “This year, our nuclear forces are going to get more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles [ICBMs] capable of penetrating all existing, even the most advanced missile defences”, he said.
    […]
    For his part, Pavel Podvig, a Russian military expert who works for the UN’s Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva, played down the importance of the ICBMs.

    He told EUobserver Russia has about 300 of them in service, as well as nuclear submarines and strategic bombers.

    He also said its rearmament programme began before the Ukraine crisis. “It [the 40 new ICBMs] is not a particularly big increase in numbers. It’s business as usual”.

    Igor Sutyagin, a Russia expert at Rusi, a UK defence think tank, said Russia is likely to retire about 60 ICBMs this year, resulting in a net decrease.

    He said some of its Soviet-era missiles are inferior to what the UK and the US had in the 1970s.

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    Kerry said concerned by Putin’s missile announcement - Yahoo News
    ▻http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-said-concerned-putins-missile-announcement-173814777.html

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday he was concerned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement he would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to Russia’s nuclear arsenal this year.

    “It does concern me,” Kerry told reporters at a news briefing.

    Kerry said Putin’s stance could be posturing but added, “Nobody should hear that kind of announcement from the leader of a powerful country and not be concerned about what the implications are.”

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    Putin: Russia would be forced to direct armed forces at any aggressors - Yahoo Maktoob News
    ►https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/putin-says-russia-forced-aim-armed-forces-aggressors-18310208

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would be forced to direct its armed forces at any countries which might threaten it, potentially adding to tensions with Western powers over its military ambitions.
    […]
    Putin noted that Russia was most concerned about a long-running NATO project to build a missile defense system in Europe. Moscow has repeatedly expressed opposition to that, and earlier on Tuesday Putin said Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year.
    “It is NATO that is moving towards our border and we aren’t moving anywhere,” he said.

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      Russia Will React to U.S. Military Buildup, Defense Chief Warns - Bloomberg Business
      ▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-16/russia-will-react-to-u-s-military-buildup-defense-chief-warns

      Russia will move forces closer to its western border in response to any movement of U.S. heavy weaponry into eastern Europe, while posing no threat to the Baltic states, the head of a military alliance of former Soviet republics said.
      Politicians in the U.S. and Europe are using the crisis in Ukraine as a “battering ram” to provoke a confrontation with Russia, Nikolai Bordyuzha, general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said in an interview amid tanks and anti-aircraft missiles displayed at the Army-2015 defense exhibition outside Moscow on Tuesday. “This is playing with fire, it’s like smoking at a gas station,” he said.
      The Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are making incomprehensible and “absolutely provocative” statements that Russia plans to attack them, Bordyuzha said. “Nobody has ever planned to attack the Baltic countries and they won’t attack,” he said. “We have enough problems of our own. We want to live in peace like other countries.”
      Amid the worst tensions since the Cold War between Russia and the U.S. and Europe over the conflict in Ukraine, the Pentagon may announce agreements this month to station tanks and troops in eastern European and Baltic countries to reassure North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published last week that “only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO” and that some countries are using a fear of Russia to gain defense benefits.

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      Air Force may send top-line fighters to Europe - CNNPolitics.com
      ▻http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/16/politics/air-force-f-22-europe

      he U.S. Air Force could be sending some of its most advanced warplanes to Europe in a show of force against Russian actions in Ukraine and elsewhere around the continent, the service’s top civilian said Monday.

      “The biggest threat on my mind is what’s happening with Russia and the activities of Russia,” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah James said during a visit to the Paris Air Show. “It’s extremely worrisome on what’s going on in the Ukraine.”

      James’ remarks were reported by Military.com, Breaking Defense and other websites.

      For months, the Pentagon has been rotating aircraft through Europe for exercises with allies under Operation Atlantic Resolve, which it calls “America’s commitment to European security.”

      Participating in those exercises and rotations have been B-2 and B-52 bombers, F-15Cs and A-10 attack planes as well as Army and Navy assets.

      James said the F-22 Raptor, the Pentagon’s premier fighter, could join that list.

      “I could easily see the day — though I couldn’t tell you the day exactly — when the F-22, for example, rotates in is a possibility. I don’t see why that couldn’t happen in the future,” James said, according to Military.com.

      The stealthy F-22s, which became operational in 2005 but only saw their first combat in attacks on ISIS positions in Syria late last year, can be configured to attack other aircraft or bomb ground targets.

      “The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft,” says the Air Force’s fact sheet for the Raptor, which costs about $143 million each. That would include what Russia currently puts in the air.Russian reaction to James’ remarks came through state-sponsored media Sputnik International.

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