Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s military committee, stated earlier this week the group of nations is preparing for strikes against Russia if the Kremlin launches an attack on any NATO nation.
A media outlet called EurAsia Daily published a quote from Bauer on Monday that was slightly mistranslated and falsely attributed to Bloomberg.
See a screenshot of the section in question below:
In reality, Bauer stated, “It is smarter to attack the archer, that is in Russia if Russia attacks us. So you need to have a combination of deep precision strikes with which you can take out the weapons systems that are used to attack us. And, of course because we’re a defensive alliance, we will have to take the first blow. So, Russia will start the conflict because we are not going to attack Russia out of nothing.”
Watch a video clip of Bauer’s statement below:
Once again; ignore the mil-twitter hysteria. Admiral Bauer specifically says any strike on Russia would have to be defensive.
— Patrick Fox (@RealCynicalFox) November 26, 2024
“Because we are a defensive alliance, we would have to take the first blow.” pic.twitter.com/1KrixBQFTA
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned Bauer’s comment, saying the NATO leader “bluntly stated” that “to achieve the goals of protecting and defending the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, it is necessary to preemptively strike at those targets in the Russian Federation that, in NATO’s opinion, could pose a threat.”
Lavrov also suggested Bauer’s remark showed “all decency has already been discarded” by NATO, which he claimed announced its “true intentions” via the admiral’s statement.
Russian MP Sergey Mironov provided a statement to Newsweek when asked about Bauer’s comment, saying, “Mr. Bauer is either a fool or a provocateur. Perhaps both at once,” pointing out Russia just debuted “a hypersonic weapon from which no one has protection.”
Is it possible that the botched translation of the NATO military chair’s comment reached Lavrov and other prominent Russian leaders, leading them to falsely believe the body of nations is preparing a preemptive strike?
With the threat of WWIII looming, it’s imperative that media outlets and political leaders accurately report statements being made by both Western and Eastern leadership before a misunderstanding like this leads to a global cataclysm.