US talk about existential threat, fear-mongering: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Manuel Ochsenreiter, editor-in-chief of Zuerst in Berlin, to discuss the remarks made by US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, saying Russia is an “existential threat” to Washington and its European allies.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Focusing on these recent comments made by this top US military official in Europe, these comments, they awfully resemble Cold War era comments don’t they?

Ochsenreiter: Absolutely correct. We live in a new Cold War. We live now in the Cold War 20 which is a much more dangerous Cold War because it is much more unstable than the Cold War of the ideologically confrontation until 1990 or the beginning of the 1990s.

We have very aggressive United States; we have very aggressive NATO which pushes to expand its territories to the east. This expansion politics faces now resistance not just by the Russian Federation but also by China, also by Syria of course, by Iran and by many other countries which are not part of this so-called Western alliance or this alliance of Western values as it is called but we see something else.

We see that the United States [is] seeing the globe or the world as sphere of total influence so this is the only way we can explain those things set by the US American officer in Europe because the United States of America [is] an extraterritorial power in Europe. They are far away and they see it as their sphere, as their garden while the Russian Federation which has security interests, which has economic interest and of course interest of cultural exchange as well with Europe, it is a territorial power, it is a power which we have to deal with.

So we see the conflict here. It is now about domination in Europe but we have to be fair. We have to say that the Russian Federation is not seeking for domination in Europe. They are seeking for equal partners but Europe can be only an equal partner when it is not occupied, when it is not part of NATO and US domination.

Press TV: It was quite opportunistic from Philip Breedlove to attach that existential threat that Washington sees from Russia to Europe as well. This pretty much goes along the lines of how he mentioned that Washington needs additional resources in Europe to counter a “resurgent, aggressive” Russia?

Ochsenreiter: Well generally when the West speaks about existential threats we have to see this in the context of fear-mongering and fear-mongering always generates support and support means of course also finances and money for the budget.

We had in the past several existential threats, so-called existential threats for the West. The Americans are very keen on telling us Europeans that if they consider something as an existential threat to US that it is at the same time also such a threat for us but we had this if we remember back in 2013 when the Americans were telling us that Syria under the Syrian government is an existential threat to the US, we had this with the Islamic Republic of Iran with the nuclear program where we were told 24/7 a day that this is an existential threat to us, so we have so many narratives of existential threats and that is the way how the Americans actually push for their politics, for their interests and for their causes.

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