The US and NATO “lie” about the deployment of Russian military forces inside and near Ukraine in order to provide a smokescreen for their own buildup of forces targeted against Russia, a commentator tells Press TV.
Rick Rozoff, the manager of Stop NATO Network, said in an interview with Press TV from Chicago on Tuesday that reports of a Russian military buildup in Ukraine are “lies” and that “it is camouflage to disguise what is in fact an incontestable buildup by the United States and NATO along Russia’s entire Western border.”
He pointed to examples of US and NATO buildup by referring to “the rotation of F-16s capable of carrying a nuclear payload… accompanied by US paratroopers; the deployment of US Special Forces; Operation Atlantic Resolve, which is aimed specifically at Russia; the development of a 25,000-troop NATO response force aimed at Russia; and coming out of the NATO Wales Summit a high-readiness task force to be deployed in eastern Europe aimed at Russia.”
Rozoff added, “What we see is a monumental buildup against Russia… and at the same time accusing the victim of being the perpetrator.”
The US-led NATO has expressed concern over what it described as a “very serious” buildup of Russian troops and equipment inside Ukraine and on the border with the east European country.
The West has accused Moscow of having sent troops to Ukraine to support pro-Russia forces in the east of the country.
Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea separated from Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March 2014.
