"NATO should show its teeth to Russia" - Czech President: They only understand the language of force

2026-05-23 20:56:02Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"NATO should show its teeth to Russia" - Czech President: They only

Czech President Petr Pavel has called on NATO to "show its teeth" in response to what he considered Russian "provocations" on the bloc's eastern flank. 

Moscow has accused European NATO members of tacitly allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russian territory, but Western officials deny this, blaming Russia for the interference and claiming that Russian electronic warfare systems may have redirected the drones to enter NATO airspace.

In an interview with The Guardian published on Friday, Pavel echoed the accusations, claiming that Russia was deliberately staging "provocations" that bordered on the line that would trigger NATO's collective defense clause, Article 5.

He also claimed that Russian military officials openly mock the bloc's indecisiveness during such incidents and called for "quite adamant, potentially even asymmetric" responses to counter Moscow's actions.

"Russia, unfortunately, does not understand the language of politeness. They understand mainly the language of force, ideally accompanied by action," he claimed. 

"When I asked them why they do these provocative actions on the air... their answer was 'because we can'. This is exactly the kind of behavior we allowed," he said. 


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