The Tiny Estonian Town That Could Spell the End Of NATO -- Michael Ben-Gad, The Week/The Conversation
Will Putin call NATO's bluff?
The Russian invasion and rapid absorption of the Crimean peninsula might seem like the spark ready to ignite a new Cold War. In fact, given the feeble Western response so far, the more likely outcome is not the division of Europe once more between NATO's Western alliance and a neo-Soviet Russia, but rather the fracturing and ultimate demise of NATO and the Western alliance itself.
Of course, no one expects the West to use military force to protect Ukrainian territory, despite the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in which Russia, the U.S., and the U.K. guaranteed Ukrainian sovereignty in exchange for its relinquishing the nuclear weapons that remained on its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet even the Russians now seem surprised, indeed somewhat amused, by how disunited and weak the Western response has been. So what comes next?
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My Comment: How Russians are treated in Estonia has always made my blood boil. My uncle's dacha is south of Saint Petersburg and a few kilometers from the Estonian border .... and there are many in that part of Russia who have family and love ones in Estoinia .... and all of them know how Russians are being are treated as second class citizens (if even then). But fear not NATO .... I am very confident in saying that Russia is not going to seize a small Estonian town to force a NATO response that would essentially be a declaration of war.
I'm one of your loyal blog readers, I like when you have a lot of different source to back up an information you are presenting here and also I like your commentaries, however when it comes to defending Russian actions, you may say its not, but we know its not true, its your true nationality, you are not quite an objective and it is understable. What I wanted to say by that, that a Russian people who lives in Baltic State, like in Latvia were I come from, are ignorant and they expect to be respected, but its hard when you are not respecting our law our language, you live in our country, you pay taxes, visits shops or name it and still dont use a Latvian language, Im not speaking of tourists, Im speaking of those Russians who bears Latvian Passports and dont want to speak in Language were they Live. Its natural that there will be people who will rise against them. Same problem are in Russia and in other Countries. Besides of respecting original people and their language, Russians should not to forget that their ancestors were an Invaders, but thats another story, but nevertheless its also gives a fire in our Blood. Bottom Line - Respect natives and they will respect you.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Forgive my English.