Speaking of smaller and weaker neighbors, have you heard the Putin is now threatening little Moldova? There is a strip of land between them and Ukraine where there is some disturbance like Donbas. I don’t know the details. Also, Moldova is not that far from Odessa along its southern border.
There was an article about a US nuclear submarine that tied up about a week ago at Gibralter, rather than the Spanish liberty port Rota. This was around the same time that one of the 6 recently dead Russian oligarchs was found dead while vacationing in a town in Catalonia, Spain. His wife and child had been hacked with an ax and knife. The husband was also dead and it was called murder, murder, suicide. I believe it was 3 murders. I wonder if their death was before or after the sub arrived, and if it affected the decision to use Gibralter rather than Rota? At any rate there is now nuclear missiles within reasonable shooting distance from Moscow.
Putin has about 1500 troops in Transnistria. That’s enough to cause trouble but not enough to pose a genuine threat.
As of now those troops are cut off from resupply and reinforcement from any direction.
Rota is a USN base, and presumably internal security is provided by the USN. I dont see why Gibraltar would be safer from Russian agents.
Believe me, there are a lot of nukes a lot closer to Moscow than Rota.