US puts NATO at arms length as Brussels pushes escalation with Russia — expert

MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. Not wanting to be a party to Europe's escalating conflict with Russia, Washington is putting some distance between itself and NATO, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), told TASS, commenting on statements by US President Donald Trump regarding the United States’ further involvement in the affairs of the North Atlantic Alliance. "The US is distancing itself from NATO, but continues its persistent militarization through its assets in the European military-industrial complex. This pullback is primarily related to the now likely irreversible escalation processes in the European theater of military operations and the course that Brussels has taken to continue projecting military force against Russia," the expert said. Stepanov pointed out that these processes can be observed both in the Baltic region and, potentially, in the Arctic zone, where NATO countries are currently building up their military infrastructure. "The main goal of strengthening the military presence in these regions is to create sufficient conditions for subsequent challenging of control over the resource base and blocking alternative logistics routes, in particular the Northern Sea Route," he said. Nevertheless, the expert emphasized that such maneuvers would in any case be tacitly coordinated with Washington. "The US itself does not want to take responsibility under Article 5 of NATO Treaty for potential aggression by Europeans. It is much easier for them to deliberately use the Europeans as another springboard for military pressure on Russia," he added. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to back US military action against Iran. In the same interview, the American leader called the alliance a "paper tiger" and admitted that he was never "swayed by NATO.".