[Pecos]

In Russian double-speak, “protect the Northern Sea Route where infrastructure is weakly protected.” is code for "preparing to re-take Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. You DO remember Georgia and Ukraine, right?".

[SeeSharp]

Yes, but this hardly qualifies as a useful weapons platform. It’s not maneuverable at all. I think it’s just another episode of Putin’s bread and circuses.

[elcid1970]

Invade the Baltic states from the North Sea using Ekranoplans, when two states border Russia & one borders Belarus?

How would the Russians get an invasion fleet into position? Poland has a long coastline on the North Sea and those Ekranoplans would make for some fun shooting.

The Ekranoplan was Nikita Khrushchev’s wacky idea for a torpedo proof invasion vehicle to attack America from the sea. When he was overthrown, the Ekranoplan was shelved & his successors went back to traditional ICBMs, nuclear submarines, and a huge land army with which to menace the world.

[billakay]

That is pretty ridiculous. Russia has zero reason or interest to invade Prebaltika (unless they start shelling Russians like in Georgia).