Putin Could ‘Crack’ NATO Under Trump, Warns Former U.S. … – Newsweek

Russian President Vladimir Putin sees an opportunity under President Donald Trump's administration to crack Americas NATO military pact with its main Western allies, says a former top U.S. diplomat.

"I suspect [Putin] sees an opportunity to do what military force alone could never do, and that is crack the NATO alliance,Doug Lute, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO in the Obama administration, said on Sunday.

If he can crack it politically, or if he can provoke internal fissures inside the alliance, Lute said during an interview on ABC News show This Weekon Sunday, then Putin sees an enormous opportunity to achieve a long-standing Russian goal.

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Lute said that for the first time in 70 years, what was once a rock-solid commitment to the alliance is in question underTrump, and that possibly opens potential opportunities for opponents.

Trump has been unpredictable in his commitment to the 70-year military alliance during his months as president.

Before his inauguration, then President-elect Trump called NATO obsolete, only to reverse his stance months later after meeting with NATOs leaders.

Read more: White House and Putin among biggest critics of Russia sanctions bill

Despite advice from his generals, Trump hesitated to affirm NATOs Article 5which says an attack on one member is an attack on allduring a speech at the alliances new headquarters at the end of May.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattisand Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had all worked to include a statement supporting Article 5 in Trumps speech, according to five sources that spoke with Politico. Trump reportedly took it out.

In thatsame speech,Trump chastisedcertain member countries for owing "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO. All NATO countries have committed to spend about 2 percent of their GDP in their individual military budgets to support the alliance. Last year, only five of all 28 nations met that goal.

Weeks later, during a press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, however, Trump said he was "committing the United States to Article 5."

All this has been very disorienting to our NATO allies, said Lute. After Trumps speech in May, one senior diplomat told Reuters the presidents remarks were not made in the right place or time" and that they were left with nothing else but trying to put a brave face on it.

Trumps statements prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to say, just days after the meeting, that the times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a signing ceremony following talks with his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 10. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool/Reuters

Many Eastern European nations who are NATO members have been wary of a Russian military buildup on their frontiers. NATO forces have been deployed in response, but they fear a weakening NATO alliance.

If that was not enough, Russia is already drawing a wedge between America and its closest NATO allies in other ways. Germany and the European Union have been disturbed by new congressional sanctions against Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, according to Jonathan Fenby, managing director of European political researchat the investment research firm TS Lombard.

A bill that passed the U.S. Senate last week seeks to impose stricter sanctions on Russia in response to its campaign to influence the 2016 American election. The bill has moved forward on distrust in Congress of Trumps willingness to punish Russia. The presidents election campaign is currently the subject of an FBI investigation into whether its officials or associates colluded withRussia tointerferein the election.

Russian energy companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas export pipeline to Europe, however, are targeted in the new sanctions bill.

This is the latest of a series of developments that augur ill for trans-Atlantic relations, wrote Fenby in a research letter to investors Sunday.

Germany and Austria, whose companies are investing in the pipeline, criticized the Senate vote for adding a new and very negative quality in European-American relations. Fenby said. Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement was also condemned by EU members who are NATO allies.

The new sanctions are just another brick in the wall of European reaction to Trumps criticism of European defence spending, Fenby wrote.

Considering the presidents rhetoric and growing divisions, Lute said, Americas allies are sort of whipsawed between key advisers and the president himself, and wonder, I think, Who actually speaks for this administration?

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