Russia could walk over the Baltic states pretty quickly and surely Putin thinks pretty easily. It would be no harder than Stalin taking Finland.
The Baltic States are preparing to defend themselves. They may have to because Putin won't leave them in peace.
Meanwhile, not all of Putin's allies are with him anymore.
http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-may-lose-belarus/
“It would be no harder than Stalin taking Finland.”
Uh...
Putin probably just can’t believe how weak Russia’s one time dominating adversary has become.
“Consider the situation today. East Germany no longer exists, while Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and every one of Russia’s other erstwhile Warsaw Pact partners are now members of NATO. So are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which in 1989 were parts of the Soviet Union itself. In 1989, the Red Army had almost a half-million troops and 27 maneuver divisions (plus enormous quantities of artillery and other units) on the territory of its three main allies. Today, it has a total of seven divisions in its entire Western Military District, all of which are based on its own territory. Indeed, the entire Russian army today boasts about 25 divisions, fewer than it had forward deployed in its Eastern European allies during the waning days of the Cold War.
Today, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany alone field more divisions than Russia has in its Western Military District. These countries are backstopped by the rest of NATO, including, of course, the United States. And this raw count doesn’t take into account the general deterioration of Russian forces since 1991, a quarter-century that saw little equipment modernization. By the late 1980s, NATO already enjoyed a significant qualitative advantage over the Warsaw Pact, and that edge has only increased since then.”
Russia could walk over the Baltic states pretty quickly and surely Putin thinks pretty easily. It would be no harder than Stalin taking Finland.