... the end of the Cold War. Therefore, Russia has a
legitimate
and vital interest and obligation to protect itself against any further decrease in its strategic security in the Baltic Sea. On the other hand, it must also be acknowledged, that the three Baltic states also are a geographically vulnerable and represent an isolated NATO-enclave, close to their big and powerful neighbor Russia. This strategic configuration constitutes a dilemma for both NATO and Russia.
Nevertheless, Finland has proven that a long-term peaceful cooperation with Russia is possible, and can even be highly profitable for a ‘western’ society. This should ...
... the build-up of reserves for the deployment of a division-level unit in the event of a crisis appears to be a more significant factor. The same goes for the expansion of NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF).
Changes are taking place in Russia as well. Moscow has managed to implement a massive, the four NATO battalions deployed in Poland and the Baltic states and apparently successful, military reform, creating " more compact, mobile, and possibly more efficient armed forces. A number of military units have been restored; in particular, three divisions were deployed on the country s southwestern ...
... fighting against international terrorism on the global scale. Each of the tasks requires significant political investments from both sides, neither of them we can take for granted.
2) Russian upcoming military exercise Zapad-2017 is causing concern in the Baltic States and NATO. Do you think Russia is interested in making the exercise transparent and defensive or is it rather going to be a demonstration of force meant to frighten NATO´s eastern members?
You should keep in mind that Russia – even the Russian leadership – is not monolithic....
... Deterrence on NATO’s Eastern Flank: Wargaming the Defense of the Baltics,” RAND Corporation, 2016, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1200/RR1253/RAND_RR1253.pdf.
11. Von Jochen Bittner, “How dangerous NATO really is: Latest exercises in Central Europe show the Western alliance could not defend the Baltic states against a Russian invasion,” Zeit Online, 29 June 2016, http://www.zeit.de/politik/2016-06/eastern-europe-nato-defence-alliance.
