Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told Business Insider that Russia’s neighbors are close to turning the Baltic Sea into a “NATO sea.”
If Sweden and Finland join NATO, it would mean every nation on the Baltic Sea except for Russia would be a member of the US-led military alliance. Pevkur said this could turn the waters into an “inner sea of NATO” even though parts of the Baltic Sea are considered international waters.
Pevkur said that if Finland and Sweden were part of NATO, it would allow the countries in the region to act as “one unified operational space” against Russia. “All this will most certainly have a deterrent effect,” he said.
Tensions rose in the region when Lithuania announced in June that it would not allow sanctioned goods to travel through its territory to Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea sandwiched between NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The EU made Lithuania reverse the move, but the incident highlighted the danger of Russian territory being surrounded by NATO members.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said he doesn’t view Sweden and Finland as a threat, but that he would respond to the expansion of NATO infrastructure in the region. Russia could potentially beef up its military presence in Kaliningrad or in St. Petersburg, which is located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.
Sweden and Finland’s NATO bids are still in the process of being approved by each member, and Turkey has signaled it could block their memberships if the Nordic nations don’t cooperate with Ankara’s extradition requests.
So instead of cooperation, dear Estonia sees another way to hatred and war. This tells us exactly why Russia wanted guarantees from NATO and USA last December!!
No matter how I work the math from every article lately, the result is WWIII and total nuclear destruction. If you disagree, show your work.
I’m inclined to agree…
Humans are supposed to be the most intelligent of the animals. Dare I say that humans rank just above beetles. Of course, beetles will survive the nuclear holocaust to come.
Well said!
I hope cats survive to become the dominant species—-all cats, from housecats to bobcat to cougar to the majestic Siberian tiger.
Cats are so awesome with incredible abilities that no other species possesses, they’re almost extraterrestrial. And they just might be.
I suspect that when the Annunaki got on their ships and departed, they left cats behind as observers/monitors. One of ours gave me a pointed and extended stare when I suggested that to my wife.
Thomas, your cat was saying, “Right on, Dad!”
The invasion of Ukraine was not Putin’s brightest idea.
It was NOT an invasion, but a provoked reaction to the US interference for many years in Ukraine which is NEXT DOOR to Russia and threatened to join NATO. It followed 8 years of attempts to negotiate which the “Ukrainian government” refused even to attempt despite UN resolutions.
Words mean things. “Invasion” does not reflect right or wrong, it just reflects the indisputable fact that an army crossed a border.
“Invasion” has a very pronounced legal significance and that’s why it’s been from the beginning an essential part of the neocon propaganda formula (“illegal & unprovoked invasion”) parroted punctiliously and precisely by all the Deep State mouthpieces whereby they are able to construe a specious (topsy-turvy) justification for their aggression.
What is our excuse for ongoing special ops in Somalia and other African territories? Protect our homeland??
Ye,r the US is “the exceptional nation”, none of its rules apply to it.
Gee Robert, I always thought the Neocons were in favor of invasions, especially their own, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan which also caused million{s?} to invade Europe? What am I missing here on this?
Right, Washington is polluted with Yale Law Review whiz to render its butchery in edifying newspeak, as “operation enduring freedom”, … and all judged on solid legal ground by the Supreme Court.
“Illegal” and “unprovoked” are additives.
The Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine. That’s an irrefutable fact of reality, whether the invasion was legal or illegal, provoked or unprovoked.
An fallacious interpretation, not a fact.
The Republics of Luhansk & Donetsk were being massively assaulted by a Washington proxy army. These republics appealed to Russia for help. After extensive attempts over 8 yrs to negotiate a stop to the slaughter had failed, Russia was compelled to accede to the use of force. As Washington in the recent past has perversely recurred to the UN recognized R2P to prevent many fictitious “genocides”, … what we see here is the legal & proper use of it. Was the good Samaritan an “invader”.
An invasion is an invasion. Whether it was justified or not is not part of the definition.
The US invasion of Virginia in 1861 may or may not have been justified. It was an invasion.
The Confederate invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1862 and 1863 may or may not have been justified. They were invasions.
The Germans invaded France in 1940 and Russia in 1941. And got invaded by the Russians and the Americans/British in 1945.
Words mean things. The fact that the word “invasion” hurts your feelz doesn’t change its meaning.
Thomas : the King of Splitting Hairs
😉
It’s not that simple. Language is not mathematics. Words are polysemous symbols.
“Invasion” carries with it an entire propaganda construct. Your insistence on a univocal generic value free objective dictionary usage is wrong-headed.
Nicely stated.
What else could he done to assure that NATO nukes would not be on his Ukraine border. Who would be authorized to launch them if there..?? Russia and Putin remember the 26 million they lost in WWII. They aren’t about to rely on any charity of strangers and doubly so enemies.
There was only one thing he could have done to assure that NATO nukes would not be on his border.
That thing was to destroy all of NATO’s nukes with a surprise, preemptive nuclear strike on his own.
I’m glad he didn’t go that route.
Now that he’s virtually guaranteed the future presence of NATO nukes on his border (they may already be there), I wonder if he’s happy about it?
Not sure if Putin is happy about it, but my guess is that there are many “leaders” in the USA and the UK that are overjoyed.
The whole “nukes on the border” meme, regardless of which side spouts it (the US reacted hysterically worse about Cuba) is ridiculous. “Nukes” can be launched from anywhere; submarines can linger undetected 100 miles offshore, fire uninterceptible missiles at coastal cities, and something like 50% or more of US citizens live less than 100 miles from the coast. So whining about a land based missile in Poland (or Cuba) is just irrational. That being said; the US had no business dangling NATO membership to Ukraine.
Off the mark. Today’s artilleryman’s wet dream is the intermediate range nuclear tipped precision guided hypersonic cruise missile.
A nuke is a nuke is a nuke
Russia has more than anyone and despite the claims of the defense industry nothing can stop all or most or many of them from reaching their targets and the same goes for ours
And while we may be stupid we’re not stupid enough to give control of our nukes over to our Eastern European banana republic lackeys and the Russians know that
So Russia an missiles in Cuba or out missiles in Ukraine, while pointlessly provocative, do nothing to change the actual threat level
Isn’t this guy proving Russia’s point?
And Estonia’s contribution to NATO Baltic sea operations will be one rowboat and two oars; and only then if the US provides the funding for the oars. And maybe the boat.
Little pissants masquerading as “Nations” bore me. All of Estonia wrapped up together is about the equal of Baltimore (if you exclude the non-citizens of Russian ethnicity from the population)
I find it surprising anyone even gives them the courtesy of printing their babble.