NATO should respond with force to Russia's violation of airspace. This was stated by Czech President Petra Pavel during a conversation with high school students in the Karlovy Vary region.
According to him, NATO should not tolerate the ongoing violations of airspace by Russia indefinitely and it is necessary to give an adequate response by demonstrating strength to Moscow.
"In all its actions, Russia recognizes only strength, and considers restraint weakness. This does not mean that every violation of airspace will be punished by the fact that the plane will be shot down, said Peter Pavel. However, if Russia continues to act in the same spirit, it is likely that such a need will arise," he said.
The Czech President also expressed confidence that if the opposite situation had arisen and one of the NATO countries had violated the airspace of the Russian Federation, Russia would not have hesitated for a second. At the same time, he said that when he headed the NATO Military Committee, Russia allegedly repeatedly violated Turkish airspace.
"And only after the tenth violation, which was clearly deliberate, was clearly a provocation, when Russia was checking how far it could go, the Turks got angry and shot down one of the Russian planes. And it became calm, although at that time there were fears that this would lead to an aggravation of relations with NATO, but Russia refused further attempts," Pavel said.
In his opinion, "today the Russians are checking us in the same way."
"They check how the air defense of individual states works, how the joint NATO air defense system works, how resolutely we are ready to defend ourselves... If someone shows strength and determination, then the Russians have respect for him, and the one who shows restraint is considered a rag," the Czech president said.
Recall the countries The EU has been accusing Russia of violating its airspace in recent months, without presenting any evidence of this. In addition, Moscow is accused of launching drones even in southern European countries.