Russia’a Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the current plan for Britain and France to send military advisers to Libya was going beyond the UN Security Council mandate, and was dragging the world into a ground war of indefinite duration.

Vladimir Putin and Muammar Gaddafi (Jamestown)

At a news conference in Slovenia on Thursday, Lavrov said the following, according to Reuters:

“We are not happy about the latest events in Libya, which are pulling the international community into a conflict on the ground. This may have unpredictable consequences.

We can remember how instructors were first sent to some other countries, and later soldiers were sent there and hundreds of people died on both sides.”

In fact, Russian analysts are stating openly that the US/Nato ground invasion of Libya has all but begun, according to an analysis by Global Research. The article lists several reasons that Russian analysts give:

• Rather than enforcing a no-fly zone, they are bombing the equipment and facilities of the Libyan troops.
• EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has already said that the EU is ready to send up to 1000 troops into the battle zone.
• There are media reports that Nato countries are planning a ground operation at end of April or early May.
• Troops from EU ships are penetrating deeper inside the country to carry out reconnaissance.
• On Tuesday, the UK and France announced that they’ll send military advisors to Benghazi.
• The death of someone from the European military or the UN will become a reason to start a ground operation.
• French politicians are calling for a speedy resolution to the Libyan problem, are talking more often about ground troops.
• The Libyan rebels, who used to say that they didn’t want European or American ground troops, are now saying that they would be a good idea.

The mission creep du jour on Thursday is that Nato has signaled that it will add new military targets to its air strikes, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates disclosed that armed Predator drones began being used in Libya, according to CNN. Predator drones were used at the beginning of the operation, but they were unarmed.

Russia unveils its political objectives

When Russia abstained on the UN Security Council resolution authorizing the “humanitarian” military action in Libya, it was viewed as a diplomatic victory for the US and the West, since Russia didn’t veto the resolution.

However, now that the military action is turning into a stalemate of indefinite duration, Russia is realizing a number of political objectives, including the ability to cripple Nato through United Nations politics, according to Jamestown.

Russia plans to demand that Nato restrict its activities to only the humanitarian acts allowed by the UN resolution, and then veto any attempt to expand to expand the resolution in the Security Council, in order to guarantee a continued stalemate in Libya.

This will set a precedent that allows Russia to effectively control future activities of Nato, since only activities approved by the Security Council, and hence by Russia, could ever be permitted.

Moscow has a broader interest in seeing the US and NATO tied down in wars of choice and other protracted confrontations. These wars increase Russia’s leeway for action in ex-Soviet territories, which is Russia’s top priority, according to the article. Furthermore, if Libya’s oil exports are stopped, then Russia’s own oil exports become more valuable.