Of course since NATO is a U.S.-led military alliance the possibility is that America and the rest of NATO could find itself at war with Russia should this current issue boil over and get really out-of-control. I have no illusions that Putin is 100% behind the threats and provocations. It's what he wants. The Trans-Asian Axis is now moving overtly against America and the West on multiple fronts.

NATO backs Estonia in row with Russia
AFP, 3 May 2007




TALLINN - The NATO military alliance on Thursday pledged its support to Estonia in a bitter row with Russia triggered by the removal of a Soviet war memorial from the centre of Tallinn.


In a statement issued in Brussels, NATO said it


"is deeply concerned by threats to the physical safety of Estonian diplomatic staff, including the Ambassador, in Moscow, as well as intimidation at the Estonian Embassy."
The statement called for the "unacceptable" actions to be stopped immediately, and for the seething row between Moscow and Tallinn over the removal of a Soviet war memorial from the centre of the Estonian capital to be resolved through diplomatic channels.


"NATO urges the Russian authorities to implement their obligations under the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations"
the statement said.


In a telephone call late Wednesday to Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had pledged the alliance's support for Estonia, a member of the military alliance since 2004, and expressed concern about Russia's behaviour toward its small neighbouring state.


The small Baltic state was plunged into its worst diplomatic crisis since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 last week when the authorities in Tallinn removed a Soviet war memorial from the city centre.


That sparked riots, which raged through Tallinn on Thursday and Friday last week.


Anti-Estonian demonstrations have been held in Ukraine and Russia. In Moscow, members of a pro-Kremlin youth movement began a blockade of the Estonian embassy.


On Wednesday, as the row escalated, they tried to attack the Baltic state's ambassador to Russia. Family members of staff working at the embassy have been evacuated.


The actions outside the Moscow embassy have provoked an international outcry, with several European Union members and the United States backing Estonia and urging Russia to respect diplomatic conventions.


"The relocation of a Second World War grave marker or monument is Estonia's internal affair,"

the NATO secretary general was quoted by the Estonian presidency as saying in the phone conversation with Ilves.


De Hoop Scheffer also condemned an anti-Estonian propaganda campaign initiated by Russia, and expressed concern about cyber attacks on Estonian state institutions, the presidency said.


Ilves confirmed to the NATO chief that cyber-attacks that forced Estonian government websites to shut down temporarily came from computers in the Russian administration, according to the statement.


Last year, Estonia, which is a global leader in IT solutions, proposed setting up a cyber defence centre for NATO.


The NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence would open in Estonia in 2008, if the military alliance approves its creation.


Estonia ranks in front of the 15 older EU members and just behind the United States on a World Bank list of countries that are well prepared for a knowledge-based society.


The war memorial at the heart of the row with Moscow is seen by Russians as a memorial to Red Army soldiers who died fighting fascism but by Estonians as a bitter reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.


Estonia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, only regaining independence in 1991 as the USSR crumbled.