NATO Blames Russia for Ethnic Unrest Amid Gas Threat

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to shut off gas deliveries through Ukraine unless European leaders took steps to stabilize the country as NATO accused Russia of stoking ethnic unrest in its eastern regions.

With about 40,000 combat-ready troops massing along the border with Ukraine, Russia is trying to subvert its neighbor’s government and force it to devolve power, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today in Prague. Rasmussen is using “Cold War-era rhetoric” in a bid to “close the ranks” between member countries in the face of a “sham external threat,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website.