Opinion: Watch Out for Little Green Men

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/nato-needs-strategy-for-possible-meddling-by-putin-in-baltic-states-a-979707.html



When Moscow-backed troops appeared in Crimea earlier this year, the media dubbed them the "Little Green Men." Now NATO members should ask themselves how they will respond if the soldiers begin appearing in Estonia and Latvia too.

Opinion: Watch Out for Little Green Men
By Steve Pifer
July 07, 2014 – 05:52 PM

The Ukraine crisis has seen an interesting phenomenon: the appearance in Crimea and eastern Ukraine of seemingly professional soldiers in Russia-style combat uniforms with Russian weapons but without identifying insignia. Ukrainians coined the term "little green men" when such soldiers first manned roadblocks and seized strategic points on the Crimean peninsula.

NATO should think through what this could portend for Alliance security, specifically, how to react if little green men appeared in Estonia or Latvia.

The little green men turned up in Crimea at the end of February. When asked at a March 4 press conference about the soldiers and their Russian-style combat fatigues, President Vladimir Putin denied that they were Russian, calling them "local self-defense units."

The truth soon came out. On March 28, Putin congratulated Russian officers in the Kremlin for their conduct of the Crimean operation. The Russian Defense Ministry issued a victory medal for the "return of Crimea." In a May 18 telethon, Mr. Putin acknowledged that the troops in Crimea were Russian.