MOSCOW. Dec 1 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S. military command is trying to transform NATO from a strategic defensive union in a dynamic military and political structure that can influence situation in many parts of the world, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin said.
"The U.S. and its allies believe that the 'extended' Middle East is the main source of threat. In my opinion, 'the oil factor,' the desire to gain control over oil and gas resources in Central Asia and the Caspian and Black Sea regions rather than an aspiration for operative reaction can be seen in the plans of the U.S.," he said.
He was commenting on a statement by John Shimkus, in which the congressman said that a drastic change in the military and political situation in Europe that will allow the U.S. to move away from the military and military strategic pattern of the Cold War could result in a re-targeting U.S. armed forces to the southeast.
This potentially means using U.S. troops deployed in Europe "to go beyond official goals, including operative reactions to regional conflicts in unstable parts of the 'extended' Middle East," Zavarin said.
"That is why, and also taking into account long-term experience of the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kosovo and creation of NATO military infrastructure there, the necessity to have bases in Bulgaria due to unpredictability of the developments in Kosovo does not seem convincing," he stressed.
According to him, the U.S. intends to establish direct military cooperation with new NATO members, in particular, Bulgaria and Romania, outside the alliance's legal framework, Zavarzin went on. This shows that the U.S. wants to secure a possibility for quick actions not limited by outside forces under certain circumstances (for instance, if key members of the alliance form a tough opposition to the U.S. course, as it happened during the launch of the Iraq campaign), he said.
The spread of U.S. Armed Forces influence on Transatlantic ties is "illegitimate, because the main goal here is to turn NATO from a static defense bloc into a military-political structure as dynamic as possible," Zavarzin believes. "This runs contrary to a series of key accords on military security and stability, including in the CFE Treaty context," he noted.