On January 6, 87 Abrams M1A1 tanks, 20 Paladin artillery vehicles and 136 Bradley fighting vehicles arrived in the German port of Bremerhaven. The United States also plans to deploy 50 Black Hawk, 10 CH-47 Chinook and 24 Apache helicopters, as well as 2,200 personnel. The newly-arrived military equipment will be distributed across Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania for training, exercises and maintenance.
"From the point of view of the risk of war [this step] increases it because NATO deploying more troops to the Baltic states and Poland will be seen as a threat by Vladimir Putin and he will respond in kind. He has to respond in kind," the analyst said. "I would expect Russia to in fact take measures to put even more troops near the borders with the Baltic states and perhaps more missiles in the Kaliningrad Region. It's a tit for tat," he explained.
McCauley noted that this was a vicious circle, with both sides forced to increase their military presence in the region so as not to appear weak. NATO has beefed up its military presence in Europe, particularly close to Russia's borders since mid-2014.
The analyst pointed to the timing of the latest deployment.
"The key thing here of course is this: why have American troops been deployed at this moment, in the middle of January 2017? Well of course President-elect Trump is coming to power on January 20 and he said that he wants to improve relations with Russia. President Obama is making this very difficult for him because he expelled 35 Russian diplomats and now he is putting troops into Poland, the Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria. So Putin and Trump will have to discuss this," he said.
McCauley further noted that both sides do not want tensions to morph into a war, but warned that an armed conflict could be sparked by an accident due to the sheer scale of military presence close to Russia's western borders.
"The problem is that at present nobody wants a war in Europe," he said. "But unfortunately wars sometimes start out of errors and small mistakes. A small mistake becomes a fire somewhere else and that escalates. That is the real danger. With all this troops in Eastern Europe being deployed and the 300,000 Russian troops in the Western sector and near the Baltic borders, the danger is that an accident could in fact inflame the situation and lead to a response from one side or the other."
McCauley urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump to come together and "wind down" these tensions.
"The key thing between Putin and Trump is trust. There is no trust at present between Obama and Putin. They don't respect one another. So therefore the key thing is to develop trust," he said.
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| 3 | Edit | Delete And he will. Russia has never been building up it´s defences as much as she does now. Lying back waiting for whatever Trump will be up to is not an option.
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| 1 | Edit | Delete "(T)his (is) a vicious circle, with both sides forced to increase their military presence in the region so as not to appear weak."
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| 1 | Edit | Delete Martin McCauley was in the Soviet Union when this new generation of vicious Russophobes like Anne Applebaum were in diapers. Reply 
| 3 | Edit | Delete It's just the terrorist American government looking for more war. Reply 
| 2 | Edit | Delete And when they get tired of showing of to the Russians, they can just turn the tanks the other way and capture Europe. Easy as stealing candy from a child. Europe is invaded. Reply 
| 0 | Edit | Delete That this may escalate:
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| 0 | Edit | Delete The western countries and puppet of the USA want the Russian to use resources to this useless irritation of NATO. I have said that Russian should not bother about this irritation. I have also said that Russia must make it very clear to the USA that any brake of hostilities in Europe with NATO, will be responded with huge amount of nuke missiles directed to the USA country and all those places that have been identified as potential points of threat to Russia and its allied. The USA wants that Russia play silly war games with NATO in order to identify possible holes in the Russia missiles defence. Reply 
| 0 | Edit | Delete build a astra around US in the friends countries. TIT for TAT is tghe logic Reply 
| 1 | Edit | Delete Nonsense, there is no need at all for Russia to respond in kind to NATO's 'Art of War' play pretend bluffs. McCauley, "analyst", is predicting exactly what the west wants to see. Smother the Baltics with love (economic and otherwise). Plus apologize over and over again for Stalin's crimes against these countries. Don't fall for NATO's trap. Reply 
| 1 | Edit | Delete In the immediate sense there is a huge exaggeration in the response from posters essentially why? Obama has sent troops to mainly give Porky a woody even if it only lasts for 3 seconds to keep at it!
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| 1 | Edit | Delete In summary it is a licensing arrangement with Empire media to give them the ammo to destroy Trumps administration rather than a real provocation to engage Russia in a battle let me assure you NATO forces bar a handful are not at all interested in coming into conflict with Russia in fact I will predict right now NATO will have a mutiny on its hands if it orders an invasion if Russia invades that's a different matter and well NATO knows.
Show new comments (0)Mikhas
The unfolding Ziocon "first strike" scenario is an existential threat no matter who resides in the White House. Trump wont be able to reverse that even if he wanted to. The military infrastructure is there and will remain there until US/NATO realize that it is futile, with S-500 Russia will be able to shield itself from incoming ballistic and hypersonic threats, be they in space or closer to Earth and Russia can still remove the US from the face of the Earth within 30 minutes.
marcanhalt
Where did McCauley go to finishing school? Vassar? He sounds like a little girl who sleeps with the lights on. Or, could be be another "guest columnist" that writes for the CIA? What he is forgetting is the ass-whooping Russia gave NATO in Syria. WARNING! DON'T tease the beat unless you bring a honey pot.
Angus Gallagher
Mitach2002
Think of the peace if America was gone.
Imagine.
NATOisEVIL
cmat.wolfgang
"A small mistake becomes a fire somewhere else and that escalates. That is the real danger. With all this troops in Eastern Europe being deployed and the 300,000 Russian troops in the Western sector and near the Baltic borders, the danger is that an accident could in fact inflame the situation and lead to a response from one side or the other."
is not necessarily a problem of the USA, the baltics is not the backyard of the US.
The worst what could happen is that those Baltic countries are being wiped out.
And since 90 percent of US citizens wouldn't even know where these countries are it won't be on front page.
landauroj
kasivasantha
maxxus
ivanwa88
Obama despite the obvious futility in trying to pressure Russia is doing what the ruling elite asked of him "to keep the pressure cooker at fever pitch irrespective of who wins the election that is your job"
Of course there is always at least 5 objectives in any elite based decision for most people in normal life its 1 or 2 such ramifications of if Trump orders the tanks back he faces a storm of protest from media backing the 'Empire' the mainstream media will have front and back page features with disgusting put downs of Trumps administration.
I could go onto 4 and 5 but im sure everyone gets the picture.
ivanwa88
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