Vladimir Putin is opening a new front against the West.
In the context of growing tensions, the main strategic goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin is to launch a hybrid aggression against NATO where the Alliance has the weakest positions. Recent months have shown that due to the failure in Ukraine, the Kremlin has changed its strategy and is now relying on the weakening and collapse of NATO.
The Telegraph writes about this.
The military setback in Ukraine has reduced the immediate threat to Poland and the Baltic states somewhat, but Russia is now looking for NATO's weak spot. Apparently, the Balkans, NATO’s weakest flank, will become a new point for Moscow’s destabilizing efforts, the publication writes.
So, last weeka group of armed Serbs ambushed a police patrol in Kosovo, which ended in a short battle and the death of one policeman and three Serbs. The escalation is being described as one of the most serious since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
Kosovo's leaders called it a terrorist attack. And Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied any involvement, complaining to the Russian ambassador to Serbia that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was carrying out “brutal ethnic cleansing” with Western support.
“This escalation is Moscow's dream. Serbia and Russia have been preparing the Serbs for months for an escalation in Kosovo, stoking tensions in the Balkans to divert Western attention from the war in Ukraine. They have flooded the information space with propaganda repeating old claims that Kosovo belongs to Serbia, such rhetoric has previously caused ethnic violence in the region,” the publication writes.
Russia quickly took advantage of this incident: a Russian representative stated that “additional pressure from the West” was putting “the entire Balkan region on a dangerous brink.” By acting with hybrid methods without sending his troops to the region, Putin seeks to achieve three goals: to distract the West from Ukraine, strengthen Moscow's position in the region and give the Kremlin leverage over Western states by blackmailing them with the threat of escalating the conflict in the region.
NATO has announced it is beefing up its troop presence in Kosovo – the UK Ministry of Defense has handed over command of an army battalion to NATO to help – but it must do more, quickly, to quell the violence and warn off Russia and Serbia.
“Another” The Kosovo crisis could easily spill over into North Macedonia, a NATO member state, and would have serious implications for European defense at a time when the US is distracted by upcoming elections. Despite NATO's overall military advantage, it has a weak position in the Balkans and Russia continues to win “It's there. It's time for NATO to strengthen its presence in the region and put Russia on the defensive,” writes The Telegraph.
Recall that the President of Latvia named three factors that will force the Russian Federation to end the war in Ukraine.
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