by Francis Tuschek, Staff Writer
The US-led NATO bloc has been locked into a hybrid war against Russia and its backers, with the shaping of the “new world order” being at stake, deputy chief of the Allied Command Transformation (ACT), General Christian Badia, has said.
The General, who had previously served with the German military and assumed the senior nato role back in 2022, made the remarks in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Tuesday.
“Russia is waging a hybrid war against the West,” Badia claimed, warning the ongoing conflict could escalate in an uncontrollable manner at any moment. “There are too many grey areas and the resulting miscalculation is the biggest risk,” he said.
The ongoing hybrid standoff has already grew out of proportion and cannot be described merely as the “Cold War 2.0,” as some refer to it, the general believes.
“The confrontation with Russia is not just ‘Cold War 2.0.’ Here we are talking about a new world order,” he said.
Moscow is backed by China, North Korea, and Iran, Badia asserted, claiming NATO’s rivals are jointly developing hypersonic weapons, and satellites and making advances in cyberspace. The deputy commander did not provide any facts to substantiate such claims, stating, however, that Russia is also backed by some other nations willing to challenge Western dominance.
Badia’s assessment of the standoff between Moscow and the US-led bloc echoes the remarks by the top Russian officials, who had described the situation as a hybrid war, particularly referring to the mounting sanctions pressure and the enduring Western military support of Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly rejected claims by top officials of the NATO countries that the bloc’s active involvement in the Ukrainian conflict somehow did not make the bloc a party to it.
“NATO is already waging a war against Russia, but it is a hybrid war through the hands of Ukrainians,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said back in September.