Top General: NATO Would Use Military Force If Russia Uses A Crimea-Style Infiltration Against A NATO State

NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of the U.S. European Command General Philip Breedlove speaks during a news conference at the National Defence headquarters in Ottawa May 6, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Chris Wattie

NATO Would Respond Militarily To Crimea-Style Infiltration: General -- Reuters

(Reuters) - If Russia tries to infiltrate troops into a NATO country, even out of official military uniform as it did before it annexed Ukraine's Crimea, NATO will respond militarily, the alliance's top commander said in an interview published on Sunday.

Soldiers wearing uniforms without national markings were deployed when Russia entered Crimea from late February. Although President Vladimir Putin initially denied involvement, he admitted in April that Russian forces had been active there.

Kiev and Western governments are now waiting to see if Moscow will intervene to support besieged rebels in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east. Some defense experts have said Putin might also look to the former Soviet republics in the Baltics which have large ethnic Russian minorities, such as Estonia or Latvia.

Read more ....

My Comment: If such a military response occurs .... we will be at the brink of a major European conflict .... and possibly a World War. But personally I doubt that Russia would use such tactics against any NATO member .... there is simply no support in Russia to engage NATO on such a level .... and I suspect that Putin also has no stomach to go down this dangerous road. As to the conflict in Ukraine .... that is a different story .... my read of the Russian public is that they would support a military intervention if and only if the conflict becomes a massive humanitarian disaster .... and we are nowhere near that yet.