US Plans to Send Tanks, 5K Troops to E. Europe; Informs Putin NATO Will Counter Any Aggression

In a critical move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is planning to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, the NY Times website reports today (June 14, 2015).

Implementation of the plan would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1991 that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Russia's recent annexation of Crimea and its ongoing aggression in eastern Ukraine have caused alarm and prompted new military planning in NATO capitals.

It would be the most prominent of a series of moves the U.S. and NATO have taken to bolster forces in the region and send a clear message of resolve to allies and to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, that the United States would defend the alliance's members closest to the Russian border.

"This is a very meaningful shift in policy," said James Stavridis, a retired admiral and the former supreme allied commander of NATO, who is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. "It provides a reasonable level of reassurance to jittery allies, although nothing is as good as troops stationed full-time on the ground, of course," Stavridis said.