Russia builds up air, naval forces in Crimea to challenge NATO

By Vladimir V. Sytin
The Ukrainian Times

Over the course of two years Russian troop strength has increased twofold to about 24,000 in Crimea and is forecast to reach 43,000 by 2025. The number of armored vehicles and submarines that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has in service there today is what it was during Soviet times.

The purpose of Russia is to convert Crimea into a strategic military base, capable of challenging successfully the old and faulty NATO. In fact, the Russian peninsula is outfitted with the latest weaponry, including Pantsir air-defense missile systems and Bastion antiship missile complexes.

In addition, Crimea has Iskander-M missile systems that can hit targets in Romania and Turkey. Plans are afoot to deploy Tu-22M3 missile carrier aircraft in the air base near the Crimean town of Gvardeiskoe. Tu-22M3s have a range ability of some 2,500 kilometers.

According to Sergey Naryshkin, Chairman of the State Duma (Russia’s parliament), NATO is the malignant tumor of the all European continent. “It would be better if this organization disbands,” he stated.

Politologist Paul Craig Roberts wrote that to perpetuate American hegemony, power-crazed fanatical neoconservatives threw away the guarantees, which Washington gave Moscow, that NATO (essentially the United States) would not move one inch to the East. As Russian President Vladimir Putin once put it, Moscow has nonstandard solutions up her sleeve and no one will succeed in winning military superiority over Russia.

NATO, as U.S. military authorities admit, has no chance of invading Russia or withstanding a Russian attack on it. The Western alliance is a cover for Washington’s war crimes. Many observers think it can provide no other service.