MOSCOW RIGHTFULLY ACCUSES NATO OF ‘DESTABILIZING’ NORTHERN EUROPE (Source SPACE WAR) Russia lashed out at NATO on Monday, saying its military drills in the Baltics could destroy northern Europe’s stability and warning against Ukraine’s membership in the US-led military bloc. Speaking to Interfax news agency ahead of a meeting Tuesday of foreign ministers from NATO’s 28 member states, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexei Meshkov said NATO command is “trying to destabilise the world’s most stable region, that of northern Europe.” “Endless military exercises, the deployment of nuclear-capable planes to Baltic countries” will lead to the “destruction” of stability and security in the region, he said. Increasingly isolated Moscow is locked in the worst standoff since the Cold War with Western countries, which accuse it of stoking the conflict in eastern Ukraine where over 4,300 people died in fighting since April. NATO accused Moscow last month of moving nuclear-capable weapons to Crimea — annexed by Russia in March — and of moving troops and equipment across the border to eastern Ukraine where Kiev’s forces are battling a pro-Russian insurgency. Meshkov said “no proof” had been provided by the alliance of Russia’s military presence in Ukraine and said the West was basing the allegations solely on information from Ukraine and Internet sources.

Kiev has dropped its non-allied status recently to get on track to join NATO and a top commander was in Kiev last week for high-level talks, further adding to Moscow’s ire. “Ukraine’s membership in NATO will undermine the entire system of European security. Those who are now trying to pull Kiev into NATO are taking up tremendous geopolitical responsibility,” Meshkov said.

NATO alliance approves rapid reaction force (Source AP) The initial unit, to be up and running in early 2015, will be supplanted the following year by a permanent force, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. Foreign ministers from the 28 NATO member countries also approved maintaining measures through 2015 initiated to reassure NATO nations nearest Russia, Stoltenberg said. Such measures include stepped-up air patrols over the Baltic Sea and the continuous rotation of NATO military units in and out of countries like Poland and the Baltic republics. A senior NATO official said the brigade-sized land-based component of the force, about 3,000-4,000 troops contributed by Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, is expected to be operational in early 2015. The ministers’ one-day meeting in Brussels was NATO’s most important gathering since a September summit in Wales. The foreign ministers also condemned what they called Russia’s “continued and deliberate destabilization” in Ukraine, and announced new non-lethal assistance for Ukraine’s military.. The ministers said in a joint statement that Russia’s actions “undermine the security of Ukraine and have serious implications for the stability and security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area.”