... and from military moves in the airspace and waters of the three Baltic countries and the two East-Scandinavian countries (Sweden and Finland), and limit heavy Russian military presence in a narrow belt (5-10 km, perhaps) close to the borders of the Baltic states.
Andrey Kortunov, Olga Oliker:
The United States, Russia, and Europe in 2018
A guarantee against West-imposed “regime-change” in
Belorussia
must be included. But in a way (to be designed by Russia) as not to “freeze” Belorussia in an obsolete political structure, and not to preclude any natural ...
... studied, with professionals both in Russia and the West interpreting them in a relatively rational way. The same cannot be said of the next three components.
The fourth component concerns political identity. This topic is particularly pressing for the Baltic states and Poland. For these countries, Russia is a part of the "dark legend" national narrative. They perceive Moscow as the grotesque embodiment of an almost absolute evil. Historical experience is projected both onto the present and into the future. Identity imparts a fair share ...
... 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....
... 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.