Commander of U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti hosts a command “Town Hall” at Patch Barracks, Germany, February 07, 2018. US Army Photo
By: John Grady for EUCOM, March 11, 2018 6:43 PM The Balkans are “an area we could have problems with in the future” as the Kremlin increases the tempo of its disinformation campaigns in Serbia and nations with large Serb populations, like Kosovo and Bosnia, the nation’s top commander in Europe warned Thursday. Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti testified, “Russia is at work in the Balkans, and we have kind of taken our eye off the area.” Moscow’s idea is to “have a spoiling effect” in nations of the former Yugoslavia, destabilizing their governments and undermining the population’s confidence in their leaders. Russia’s most recent and public intervention in the region came two years ago as Montenegro, a Balkan nation on the Adriatic Sea, was moving toward NATO membership. Moscow, following its seizure of Crimea in 2014, the backing of separatists in Ukraine and deteriorating relations with the European Union and the United States because of that aggression, saw this as a direct security threat. […] https://news.usni.org/2018/03/11/eucom ... 721&mc_eid=8fcd2268a0
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