[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

It's not that simple. Poland had treaties with the UK and France. Take the case today - if Russia invades ANY Baltic state, NATO needs to take action, because of treaties.

The next challenge to NATO will be this: "Should we risk nuclear war for a little country like Latvia?" If the answer is "no," then NATO collapses. This is the end-goal of Russian military strategy. Ukraine is just the second stage, after Georgia.

[Cossak]

Much less military risk and easy to implement to Russia would be turning off oil and gas supply to NATO countries instead of invading Latvia.

[Cronos]

NATO won't do that -- Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Turkey won't allow this -- for self-preservation.

Also, Latvia isn't that big in Russia's mind -- they will only use it to distract the West.

Their aim is the south -- Turkey.