<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/22/czech-president-petr-pavel-nato-show-teeth-russia-provocations>
"The Czech president, Petr Pavel, has urged Nato to “show its teeth” in
response to Russia’s repeated testing of the alliance’s resolve on its eastern
flank, suggesting a range of options including switching off its internet,
cutting off its banks from global financial systems and shooting down jets that
violate allied airspace.
Speaking to the
Guardian in Prague, Pavel called for “decisive enough,
potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s provocative
behaviour against the alliance or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions.
A retired general and former chair of the Nato military committee, the
64-year-old’s defence background is rare among European leaders. His years of
experience talking to Moscow on the suspended Nato-Russia council have made him
an influential voice on the future of the alliance and the threats it faces.
He expressed frustration with “a lack of determination to keep pushing from the
United States on Russia”, although he steered clear of direct criticism of
Donald Trump despite the US president continuing to cast doubt on the future of
Washington’s commitments to the alliance.
Pavel has previously told Czech media: “Trump has done more to undermine the
credibility of Nato over the last few weeks than Vladimir Putin has managed to
do in many years.”
He waved away questions about this comment, saying he did not think “any direct
criticism of the United States will help at this point”.
He focused instead on the need to push Nato members to take a firm line on
Russia. After its illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, he said
Moscow had learned how Nato operated and “developed a behaviour style to almost
meet the threshold for Article 5, but always keeping it slightly below that
level.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
