Commentary
Has the Kremlin decided to fight a hot war in the Baltic Sea’s cold waters?
On June 17 the Russian Navy deliberately violated Danish territorial water, specifically the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, which lies north of Poland. During the Cold War Bornholm was a Berlin-like intelligence outpost behind enemy lines.
On June 18 a Russian border patrol helicopter violated Estonian airspace. Two days later the Kremlin threatened Lithuania, warning it would take “measures to defend its national interests”—to protect Kaliningrad. On June 21, Estonia claimed that Russia was conducting military exercises that included “simulated missile attacks” targeting against Estonia.
With its principle offensive ground forces fighting a dreadful war of attrition in eastern Ukraine, Russia really isn’t in a position to militarily bully and intimidate NATO nations with martial tantrums. Yet over a four-day period Russia directed physical and verbal threats of war at three small nations on the Baltic Sea….