Nato accuses Russia of ‘weaponising’ immigrants

Nato’s top commander accused Russia and the Syrian regime on Tuesday of “weaponising” immigration by using bombs aimed at civilians to deliberately cause large flows of refugees and challenge European political resolve.

General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s supreme allied commander, said that the types of bombs being used in Syria — especially the Assad regime’s barrel bombs — were designed to force civilians from their homes.

Asked at a Senate hearing whether Russia was aggravating the Syrian refugee crisis in order to divide countries in the EU, he replied: “I can’t find any other reason for them [air strikes against civilians] other than to cause refugees to be on the move and make them someone else’s problem.” He added: “I use the term weaponisation of immigration.”

Gen Breedlove was talking as the ceasefire in Syria orchestrated by the US and Russia entered its fourth day amid significantly reduced fighting but some signs of violations on both sides.

In a report published on Monday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian air strikes had continued in opposition-held areas of northwestern Syria after the start of the ceasefire.

Gen Breedlove said that the recent Russian air strikes were “ostensibly” against Isis and the al-Nusra Front, which are not covered by the ceasefire, but he added that “I think that this remains to be seen”. “We will have to watch the actual activity of the cessation to determine whether it is a valid one or not,” he said.

While US and European officials have been heavily critical of the impact of the Russian and Syrian air campaign on the refugee crisis that the war has generated, Gen Breedlove’s comments were unusually blunt.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/76a52430-dfe1-11e5-b67f-a61732c1d025.html#axzz4258XlcsU

NATO commander says Syria, Russia using migrant crisis as a ‘weapon’

The supreme allied commander in Europe for the 28-member military alliance said the massive flow of migrants from war-torn Syria has had a destabilizing effect on European countries where they found refuge, and that worked to Moscow’s advantage.

“Together, Russia and the Assad regime are deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve,” Breedlove told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Speaking of Russia’s six-month air campaign in support of Assad, and the Syrian leader’s use of barrel bombs in civilian areas, Breedlove said Moscow and Damascus are deliberately fueling the mass displacement of Syrians.

Breedlove, who also heads the US military’s European Command, suggested this creates a distraction for Western powers as they grapple with the crisis and are forced to take their eye off its root cause.

“These indiscriminate weapons used by both Bashar al-Assad, and the non-precision use of weapons by the Russian forces, I can’t find any other reason for them other than to cause refugees to be on the move and make them someone else’s problem,” Breedlove said.

Further complicating the refugee crisis, he added, is that increasing numbers of foreigners who have fought in Syria are heading home again, bringing battlefield skills and sometimes extremist ideologies.

“What we have seen growing in the past months and year is that in that flow of refugees we see criminality, terrorism and foreign fighters,” he said.

NATO last month launched an unprecedented naval mission in the Aegean Sea to tackle people smugglers taking refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160302-nato-commander-says-syria-russia-using-migrant-crisis-weapon

Sunshine of the spotless mind’: Russia rebuts NATO accusation of it ‘weaponizing’ migrant crisis

Insisting that the influx of migrants to Europe benefited Moscow, Breedlove noted that foreign militants who have been fighting in Syria are now returning back home, where they might use their battlefield skills.

Breedlove added that the alleged strategy was used by both Russian and Syrian presidents to create a distraction for the western countries that have been busy tackling the crisis and did not notice its root cause: “Indiscriminate weapons used by both Bashar al-Assad, and the non-precision use of weapons by the Russian forces.”

Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov called the latest allegations a “recurrence” of the NATO general’s traditional rhetoric which only reaffirms concerns about Breedlove’s “memory dislocation.”

“Taking into account that such recurrence of the ‘sunshine of the spotless mind’ appeared right before the scheduled meeting of the Armed Services Committee, there is no wonder that a decision has been made by the US congressmen to replace him on his post of the Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Joint Force in Europe,” Konashenkov said.

Konashenkov once again pointed out that Moscow could not have possibly been the reason for the refugee crisis, which began long before Russia launched its anti-terror operations in Syria. And unlike the anti-ISIS coalition, Russia’s operations in Syria have alleviated the refugee crisis in the country and led to the first step of the establishment of a peace-making process, Konashenkov added.

https://www.rt.com/news/334363-breedlove-spotless-mind-sunshine/