NATO’s New Boss Stoltenberg Blames Russia For Ukraine Crisis! 

-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

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NATO means military business and has, in recent years, been a threat to energy rich Islamic world as it seeks to squander resources of Arab nations for Washington. It has already looted resources of many Arab nations by illegal invasions, destabilized them, killing already millions of Muslims.

It is through this North Atlantic military front that USA moves its coins globally to bully any power that does not fall in CIA line or challenges US monopoly and US military superiority.

Traditionally, one of European leaders becomes the Secretary General of NATO headquarters in Brussels, while an American officer holds the post of the alliance's supreme military commander, beginning with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1951-52.

NATO knows it cannot achieve anything militarily a sits key objective if Russia is not on board. NATO has not only totally failed in bringing Russia to support all its global operations but also could not stop  the Kremlin form annexing Crimea and supporting Russian move for separation in East Ukraine.

NATO in involved in Ukraine crisis. Almost entire EU is squarely blaming the Kremlin for the continued crisis over Ukraine.

NATO's new Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia remains in breach of international law, but he also held out an olive branch to Russia, saying he saw no contradiction between aspiring for a constructive relationship with Russia and being in favor of a strong NATO.

In his first news conference as NATO leader Stoltenberg said the ceasefire in Ukraine offers an opportunity but Russia still has the power to destabilize the country. The ceasefire in Ukraine, he says, offers an opportunity but Russia maintains its ability to destabilize Ukraine.

Former two-term Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg started work on October 01 as NATO's secretary-general, the 13th in the trans-Atlantic organization's 65-year existence. And the key question is whether his consensus-building style will be more effective in tamping down the Ukraine conflict and other flash points than the hard talk of his predecessor, tough Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Stoltenberg was unanimously chosen as Rasmussen's successor by NATO's policymaking North Atlantic Council in March. It was a pick that won swift if tentative approval from Putin, who had dealt with Stoltenberg when the 55-year-old Norwegian headed the left-of-center government of one of Russia's neighboring countries.

Jens Stoltenberg is expected to use a more moderate language to keep the dialogue with Moscow open. The expectation of a dial-back of the rhetoric from Rasmussen — a former conservative Danish prime minister is one factor arguing in Stoltenberg's favor..

At a time of daunting geopolitical crises, NATO is undergoing its own version of regime change, with the arrival of a new chief official who has the blessing, at least temporarily, of Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the West's biggest adversaries.

Stoltenberg will be the first secretary-general to hail from an alliance nation that borders Russia. He becomes NATO's highest-ranking civilian at a time when Western relations with Moscow are at their lowest ebb since the collapse of the Berlin Wall a quarter-century ago.

Putin said in an interview on Russian state television last spring that he has very good relations, including personal relations. "This is a very serious, responsible person, but we'll see how our relations develop with him in his new position," he added.

Simultaneously, NATO member states are confronted with crises in Iraq, Syria and North Africa, the uncertain future of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an array of security challenges ranging from the threat of cyber-attacks to pirates preying on commercial shipping in the waters off the Horn of Africa.

Stoltenberg told a news conference at the NATO summit in Wales earlier this month that the NATO is not just a security alliance. It is a family of values which reaches across the Atlantic and defends almost 1 billion citizens of our allied countries. "We must continue to stand up for those values," he said.

Stoltenberg, an economist by training, became Norway's youngest prime minister in 2000 the day after his 41st birthday, though he had to resign seven months later when his Labor Party took a beating at the polls. He joined the party at age 14 and was involved in Vietnam War-era street protests that sometimes ended with rocks being thrown at the U.S. Embassy.

Norwegian intelligence officials have praised the “patriotic” sense of Stoltenberg revealed  in the waning days of the Cold War, when he was a promising young politician, the Soviet Union's spy agency tried to recruit him, but he reported the KGB's attempts to Norwegian authorities and did nothing wrong.

As premier, he became a recognizable face on the international scene with his sober, dignified response to the terror attacks that killed 77 people in Norway in July 2011. It was the worst atrocity since World War II to befall his small but proud country.  Belying a dovish reputation, Stoltenberg pushed through an increase in military spending during his second spell as prime minister in 2005-13.

Stoltenberg has long been a staunch U.S. ally. He endorsed President George W. Bush's "war on terror" after the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, backed the decision to send Norwegian troops to Afghanistan, and sent Norwegian units to take part in NATO's airstrikes in Libya.

Stoltenberg can boast of some international assignments, including serving as a United Nations special envoy on climate change and chairman of a high-level UN advisory panel on climate-change financing.  As well as heading NATO's staff and chairing its policy making council, a major part of the secretary-general's job is trying to broker agreement among the alliance's 28 member countries.

Not a visionary perhaps, but one who builds through small steps and minor measures,  Stoltenberg has demonstrated that he has the skills needed to achieve effective unity at NATO at a time where the alliance must tackle security challenges on multiple fronts simultaneously. Many say he rarely picks a conflict with anybody and is a consensus maker.

Of course, Stoltenberg also cannot make any difference in NATO relationship with Russia so long as NATO refuses to make it also a veto member to decide the military matters globally.

Since NATO is not going to change its war strategy on perceived, rather fictitious threats – necessary as justification for illegal wars.