Recent actions by Russia seem to have caused Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine to dust off defunct plans to create a joint force for peacekeeping duties, an idea that had gotten shelved several years ago.
What's interesting is that these three nations more or less correspond with the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia's 16th century nemesis. What's more interesting is that it seems more aimed at NATO ("look what we have to do when you don't give us the protection we need") than it is at Russia, who in a straight up fight could steamroll all three of these countries combined if it had to.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
I think it's more to protect themselves in the mean time. Obama has put more US troops into the respective countries and has increased the amount of F16's that patrol them.
NATO would descend on Russia if they attacked one of them 3 but I reckon it's something for defending the initial attack. If they're more solidified as a group they are more coordinated to defend themselves.
It's worth noting that Ukraine isn't part of NATO, so it's very unlikely that the USA would intervene in the event of a Russian invasion unless Russia's actions threatened NATO states directly.
NATO's worst fear is that Russia will attempt a stealth invasion of the Baltic States as they did with Ukraine, because if there's no hard evidence (legally-damning evidence, which is different from conjectural "anyone who has a brain understands this" evidence like Russian supplying tanks to Donbass Rebels that were never in the Ukrainian inventory) then going to war with Russia over some small countries when the European member states are nowhere close to being on a war footing will seem like too big a cost. At the same time, NATO simply couldn't afford not to respond with force or else the entire spirit of the alliance would be dispelled.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
Yeah true missed Ukraine on your first message. Apologies for that.
Yeah it's sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't sort of thing. To be honest I reckon with the Russian economy tanking. If they don't own up to what they have done in part and try to help with the ceasefire (as much as they said they have helped) we haven't seen any change. Then I reckon Putin will just stay quiet.
Indeed. These plans are aimed more at rebuffing an initial attack more than anything else and is by no means a substitute for NATO. Though I am not really sure how Ukraine will play into this, if at all.
__________________ And from the ashes he rose, like a black cloud. The Sin of one became the Sin of many.
The European Union entering an open war would advance federal cooperation in the region by at least 25 years. It's well worth the investment for the pro-Europe hounds that are seeing their influence menaced by nationalist ambitions.
I think it's silly for the European states not to at least seriously plan for the contingency of a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe.
An issue of Die Welt straight up accused the German government (and public) of being naive for not believing that there might come a point where Germany will have to go to war with Russia.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
I don't think Russia will invade. While I agree with you on the Baltic States needing to solidify etc.
Putin runs a huge propaganda machine. He goes into Crimea. His ratings shoot up to over 90%. A lot of it is just posturing so Putin can act like he is defending against "enemies of the motherland" which gives him points back home.
The concern though is that to maintain that kind of volatile popularity Putin will have to keep upping the ante and doing other provocative things or possibly even pushing Russia back into a new Cold War.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
erm.. aour prime minister just got promoted to the chief of some european union thing (too lazy to look out proper english term) and our whole gov is getting replaced.. so it is a bit busy oh.. about our national team won world championships in valleyball.
so please don't look down on us [and i don't like watching news.. but usually i hear about the important stuff eitherway]
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Sep 21st, 2014 07:57 PM
