Remember that Belarus is still a Russian puppet, it could well be the launch-point for an invasion of Lithuania or Latvia
Posted on 02/24/2015 7:46:47 AM PST by WhiskeyX
Staunton, February 17 – Most analysts have become so focused on Vladimir Putin’s use of “hybrid war” that they do not take into consideration that he could choose to wage a conventional war in some places, and most of these same analysts are also guilty of evaluating the Baltic countries as if Moscow would use the same and common strategy against them.
But Marius Laurinavičius, an analyst at the Vilnius Center for Research on Eastern Europe, points out that Moscow could very well employ a “hybrid” war strategy against Estonia and Latvia but use a “conventional” against Lithuania in order to secure a corridor to Kaliningrad (ru.delfi.lt/news/live/u-litvy-est-problema-ochen-vazhnaya-dlya-rossii.d?id=67188786). His argument is important for Western military analysts to take into account because most discussions about possible Russian aggression in the Baltic region have focused on Latvia and Estonia, which have relatively large Russian and Russian-speaking minorities, rather than on Lithuania, which does not.
Laurinavičius tells Delfi.lt that “we devote too much attention to the threat of hybrid war. Russia is a country which can act differently in different situations. If it uses hybrid war in Ukraine, this does not mean that it will do the same in the Baltic countries because each time it is addressing specific and different tasks.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltictimes.com ...
omama has spent the last six years pissing on our allies and if push comes to shove vs Russia its us vs them.
Period.
Understandable concern there. The Baltic states all have large Russian minorities and Putin could easily claim their rights are being violated as an excuse to subvert and occupy them. This is the time for Putin to do this as Obola will be in the White House for two more years.
Sounds like deploying a few MADM’s might be in order. (nuclear landmines)
Here’s another threat: terrorists and criminals could be allowed to enter the US en masse through our southern border.
Oh wait, that’s not a threat, it actually is happening.
Have to tell our friends overseas that our homeland is under attack, we can’t help, we have those more pressing matters.
Oh, and we’re under attack from within. At the highest levels.
It’d be nice right about now if that g**damned traitor in the White House hadn’t sold us out on missile defense.
Given the small populations of the Baltic states and the overall relatively flat terrain the Russians could act simultaneously in all three.
An armored blitz through Lithuania with CAP support could speed to Kalingrad with ease as the combined air assets of all three could be taken out quite rapidly.
Another fait accompli in the making.
The Poles are an unknown factor here.
My ABNCP crew thought I was crazy back in late 89 when the Soviet empire was dissolving and I said that the Russians would eventually try to take the key Baltic and breadbasket entities back. It would be all about the power and empire as well as the resources.
Couldn’t convince them that the hardcore communists would not give up the real power in Russia, that it was a temporary setback but they would try to reestablish the empire even if it took 10 to 20 years. The individual states took with them too much of what kept the Soviet economy going.
Now, after the predictable failure of the manic rush to democratize a population and economy that had always been strictly controlled and never known free markets, the socialist rulers have reached a point where they will gain wide support from the Russian public to bring the producing regions back into the fold. They also knew very well that the western powers would degrade and would not do much to stop them.
We’ve seen the reemergence of the Russian empire builders from their long sleep over the last few years. With our traitor president and traitor parties who claim to represent us when they don’t the Russians have an open road ahead of them with no real obstacles.
Hitler hoped for circumstances like that but only had Chamberlain. Now, the former western powers are one collective Chamberlain.
Putin and Obama agree that borders aren’t important...
We’ve plenty of FReepers who think Putin’s cause is just, not I, though.
Yes, I’ve always said since 1991 that the much celebrated end of the Cold War was entirely premature, and the former KGB et al in Russia would only use Western economic assistance to rebuild in preparation for the next Russian confrontation with the Western allies in much the same spirit as Germany did between WWI and WWII with Soviet assistance.
Remember that Belarus is still a Russian puppet, it could well be the launch-point for an invasion of Lithuania or Latvia
a lot of modern technology and stuff has gone into Russia since then too.
They could go another 90 years of communism now
The route through Belarus was what I was thinking.
Good of you to post the map for evreryone’s attention.
But thinking on it more, Russia still has the bulk of the airlift capability in had in the 1968 Czech invasion. With the short distances they could be on the ground before NATO understood their target and intentions.
Once again it would come down to the will and resolve of the UK and France just as before.
Once the Baltics are occupied the NATO options narrow down to what? Air war against Russian SAMs? Land war jump off from Poland?
They would probably beef up Polands defenses but wave goodbye to the Baltics.
Time to resurrect the Commonwealth.
For me, the tip off was the absolute absence of any effort to bring the murdering Soviets to justice.
Not one single trial. They just faded into the general population and became rich.
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