 NATO Preparing for Confrontation with Russia for 15 Years NATO is ready to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia, said chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer. NATO has been preparing for a conflict with Russia since the beginning, 14 years before the start of the war in Ukraine. Our military plans against Russia reach 4,500 pages. The Admiral noted, Bauer also mentioned the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 and the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. There has been a partnership between NATO and Russia for more than 15 years. Then everything changed. He said that Allies prepared regional plans for containment and protection against the Russian Federation and terrorist group as the two main threats of the alliance. According to the Admiral, the regional plans include what needs to be done to restrain and protect against these two adversaries, these two threats. Bauer also mentioned that earlier at the NATO summit in Madrid, leaders had decided to increase combat groups on the Eastern flank. In addition to the existing four groups in Poland and the Baltic nations, four more were formed in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. He told about the decision to increase the rapid reaction force to 300,000 military personnel capable of deployment within the first 30 days. According to him, such a number of servicemen should be sufficient for NATO in case of the onset of a major conflict with Russia. Additionally, he noted the need to increase industrial production capacity, which would require significant investments. As Bauer stated, Russia's full-scale military aggression against Ukraine demonstrated the need for NATO to improve integrated air and missile defence.