In the words of the former commander of the 11th Armored Cavalry Division, Major General Jarslaw Mika, when asked about NATO in Poland, "It's important for Europe and for everyone." He said: "It's about joint cooperation, common training and all these things ensure more security for all countries. you have to prepare for a war, yeah!', he added "You would like to avoid any war, but you have to do a lot of training to be prepared": it was in Poland in 2014, when the first troops. of NATO arrived to launch Operation Atlantic Resolve Say No to Plagiarism Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayNATO Expansion and. Russia's aggressive response After the fall of the Iron Curtain that began in 1989, the Soviet Union lost its ability to control a number of Eastern European states and do what it wanted without interference. Eastern European countries began to join NATO by establishing bases in these same countries. Russia criticized the move while continuing to assert that NATO is moving its infrastructure closer to its borders. NATO's expansion into the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as the planned rise of Georgia and Ukraine are among Russia's main demands regarding the encroachment of NATO on its sphere of influence. In early March 2014, tensions increased between NATO and Russia due to a result of the latter's strategy in Ukraine. NATO urged Russia to stop its actions and said it supported Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Russia sees a potential threat if Ukraine joins NATO and that is why Russian-backed troops carried out an operation to seize part of Ukrainian territory - the Crimean Peninsula. NATO decided to deter this by placing forces in the Suwalki Gap on Poland's border. and Lithuania. This was to ensure that there was no break-up of the Baltic states, which would be possible because Russia's ally Belarus shares its borders with southern Lithuania and southeastern Poland. , while in the northwest of Lithuania and the north of Poland lies the Russian military stronghold of Kalinigrad. These borders could make it easy to prevent any military access to the Baltic States. When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was established in 1975, it was decided that each country had the right to "belong or not to belong" to international organizations, to be or not be a party to bilateral or multilateral treaties, including the right to be or not to be a party to alliance treaties.” All OSCE member states, including Russia, have sworn to uphold these principles. In 1990, allied heads of state strengthened their alliance as they supported each other for four decades, which included collective defense. Since then, thirteen other countries have joined NATO. The organization respects the right of each country to choose its security arrangements, which includes the right of allies to leave its organization. In accordance with these principles, Ukraine has the right to choose for itself whether to join any treaty alliance, including the founding treaty of NATO. This means that Russia does not, by its own repeated agreement, have the right to dictate this choice. Exercises are usually conducted in foreign countries by NATO and are done in a transparent manner and in accordance with international obligations. Russia is part of this agreement according to a document signed in..