Russia Is Threatening to Expand Its Borders Again—This Time in the Baltic Sea

Daily Beast ^ | May 22, 2024 | Allison Quinn

[MinorityRepublican]

Russia’s Defense Ministry has unilaterally moved to revise the borders of Russian territorial waters in the Baltic Sea, drafting a government decree on the expansion without even bothering to notify NATO members Finland and Lithuania.

In reaction to the surprised responses of the Baltic Sea states, the Kremlin on Wednesday issued a statement that seems bound only to make matters worse. Insisting that there’s “nothing political” about the proposed border change, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the same breath that the “political situation” has in fact “changed significantly” since the borders were drawn.

“You see how tensions are escalating, what the level of confrontation is, especially in the Baltic region. This requires our agencies to take corresponding steps to ensure security,” he told reporters, using language that sounds awfully similar to Putin’s oft-repeated claim that invading Ukraine was necessary for “security” against NATO.

[ransomnote]

Well said.

Pro Ukrainian posters on FR brag about the Ukraine (i.e, NATO) blowing up Russian docks/ships and then pretend that Russia is being unreasonably aggressive, without provocation, when Russia responds by widening the buffer around its docks and ships.

[Reverend Wright]

If they ever strike oil in Quebec, we won’t see them for dust.

My point remains, that if there were Chinese and Russian military bases at Huntington and Stanstead, we would hear a whole different tune from NeoCons on the “sanctity” of international borders.

And Russian and Chinese bases in Mexico is not a remote possibility. Especially if the Cartels gain even greater influence.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Some great man once said: “With enough ‘ifs’ I can put all Paris in a bottle.”

[dfwgator]

We went to war with Germany over a telegram suggesting that Mexico join the Central Powers. It didn’t matter if the Mexicans accepted the offer or not.

[Robert DeLong]

Thanks. 👍

[dfwgator]

Russia - Because 11 Time Zones just isn’t enough.

[Robert DeLong]

History is indeed what it is. Putin's history has not been like the USSR's history at all. You are a liar if you try to claim it is. I'm not saying Putin in an angel, but he's a far cry from Lenin & Stalin, and Lenin did not have a long reign before he died.

If you had any sense, you would know that Biden has a history, that extends much further back, and it is far more disgusting.

But keep playing your stupid game and it will end badly for the world.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Putin's history has not been like the USSR's history at all.

He's trying his best. Like restoring the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky in Moscow. You DO know who Dzerzhinsky was, and what he did, don't you?

A couple more points about his sterling character:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4238809/posts?page=205#205

Also scroll up to comment #201, it'll save you having to Gurgle Dzerzhinsky for yourself. Nah, do it anyway. You won't believe us.....

[dfwgator]

The Cheka and NKVD were just more or less a continuation of the Czar’s Okhrana. Let’s not pretend that Czar Nicky or his predecessors were saints.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

No, they weren’t. The brutality of Russian elites toward the Russian masses goes back centuries. And hasn’t improved all that much.

[dfwgator]

The tragedy of WWI is that we should have been indifferent as to who won between Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary.

But France’s alliance with Russia guaranteed that it would spread.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

....France’s alliance with Russia guaranteed that it would spread...

Been a long, long time since I read The Guns of August, but I think that oversimplifies the matter. Don't forget that France was carrying a grudge against Germany from the Franco-Prussian War.

[PIF]

Mostly dead.

[Robert DeLong]

You do also realize that, yes it was taken down in 1991, but was then reassembled in Muzeon, a central Moscow park that hosts a range of toppled Soviet-era statues, and where Dzerzhinsky has stood since 1991.

FILE PHOTO: A monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Bolshevik leader and head of the Soviet secret police, is on display in Muzeon Park of Arts in Moscow, Russia June 19, 2020. Picture taken June 19,... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

From the Moscow Times:

A Vote on Restoring a Secret Police Chief’s Statue Opens Old Wounds in Russia

Not Stalinists

With the BBC’s Russian Service reporting that the Presidential Administration — the Kremlin department that manages domestic politics — would prefer Nevsky to beat Dzerzhinsky in the online vote, some observers suspect their true aim is to close the issue of the Cheka founder’s return for good, while enshrining the 13th century prince on Lubyanka.

“Putin and his inner circle are not Stalinists,” said Malinova.

“They may admire aspects of Dzerzhinsky’s legacy, but they do not excuse the Terror or the purges. I suspect they would rather forget him than commemorate him in such a prominent spot.”

Even so, for those who imagined that Dzerzhinsky’s removal from Lubyanka represented a decisive break with Russia’s authoritarian past, even the possibility of his return is a bitter pill to swallow.

“Restoring Dzerzhinsky is a declaration that the age of the Terror has returned,” said Stankevich.

“Returning the statue to Lubyanka would represent nothing less than the restoration of the Bolshevik regime.”

A follow-up story on the vote:

Moscow Mayor Scraps Vote on Soviet Secret Police Chief Statue

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin halted a vote Friday on whether to restore a statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky outside the domestic intelligence headquarters in the Russian capital.

The vote, which kicked off Thursday and was set to last a week, offered Muscovites a choice between a statue of Dzerzhinsky, who is seen as a symbol of the KGB's control over society in the Soviet Union, and Alexander Nevsky, a 13th century prince and Orthodox saint.

But with nearly 320,000 ballots cast two days later, with Nevsky leading Dzerzhinsky by 55% to 45%, Sobyanin decided to scrap the vote — and the new statue — altogether.

I'm still trying to chase down how the decision was made to erect it in its original place, but I have other things I must attend to right now.

[Justa]

Public opinion is meaningless in a feudal empire.

[Robert DeLong]

It doesn’t seem to have much influence here either, as we look around at a lot of issues that people are pushing back against policies that are being upheld against the opinions a majority of Americans do not support. I am far more concerned about that now happening in this nation.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

A monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Bolshevik leader and head of the Soviet secret police, is on display in Muzeon Park of Arts in Moscow, Russia June 19, 2020.

But it's just been moved back to it's old spot in front of the "security services" building! By Putin. That is my point! There's a recent photo of it there, if I knew how to post photos. You fit the definition of apologist for Putin and Russia in general. You would be ashamed, if you had any.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Here. Report dated Sept 11 2023. How did you manage not to find it?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/monument-to-founder-of-soviet-secret-police-unveiled-in-moscow

[billakay]

It’s kind of like the hypothetical conversation in 1941 Tokyo, after the Pearl Harbor bombing: “See they’re attacking us all over the Pacific Ocean, I told you they’d do that. That’s what Americans are, and this proves it. Glad we struck first.”

Exactly right, Bob. I wonder if the FR warmongers can tell us when the US has EVER left Russia alone. Russia responds to aggression and threats. The US knows this, and just keeps on being aggressive and threatening. The coup government in Ukraine's behavior after Maidan was just another US-driven provocation and threat to Russia.

In fact, when you really think about it, most of the US's so called 'enemies' have really great reasons to be pissed. Cuba? look no further than Operation Mongoose and the Bay of Pigs. Iran? How about the two coups that we sponsored (on behalf of private petroleum companies) before we won the Ayatollah lottery?

It is nonsensical to sow discord and insecurity across the globe, then act surprised and innocent when peace doesn't follow.

The real question right now is why the **** do we care about Ukraine? Let them capitulate so it can be over. Re-establish full diplomatic relations with Russia on a fair and equitable basis and peace will follow.

[woodpusher]

Russia Is Threatening to Expand Its Borders Again—This Time in the Baltic Sea

The Decree is a proposal which will not take effect until next year, IF approved. A border adjustment is proposed, but no specifics are provided.

“The state border of the Russian Federation at sea will change,” read the now-deleted draft decree, which was published on a government portal Tuesday. The decree would take effect in January 2025 if approved.

The Defense Ministry argued that the 1985 measurement used to determine borders relied on outdated charts and thus must be “invalidated.” The border around Russian islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and around Kaliningrad would then be adjusted, though the decree provided no specifics on what the adjustment would entail.