US lending support to Baltic States fearing Russia

[Jacque67 7,328]

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Dozens of United States Special Operations forces are now in the Baltics to bolster the training and resolve of troops who are confronting a looming threat from Russia, and to enhance the Americans’ ability to detect Moscow’s shadowy efforts to destabilize the former Soviet republics.

“They’re scared to death of Russia,” Gen. Raymond T. Thomas, the head of the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command, who visited here recently, said of the tiny militaries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. “They are very open about that. They’re desperate for our leadership.”

As a result, General Thomas said, American commandos now have a “persistent” presence here with Baltic special operations troops, after forging close ties with them over the past decade while fighting together in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Americans bring sophisticated surveillance technology and broad sources of intelligence. The Baltic partners have a deep understanding of conventional Russian military might as well as Moscow’s increasing use of cyberwarfare, information subterfuge and other means less than all-out war to weaken the Western-backed governments.

It is unclear how supportive President-elect Donald J. Trump will be of this initiative as he aims to mend fences with Moscow. Mr. Trump suggested during the election campaign that only NATO allies that paid their fair share deserved protection from the United States, although he has since softened his warning. His remarks alarmed the Baltic nations, which count on NATO’s collective security efforts to deter an unpredictable Russia.

[Jacque67 7,328]

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/01/us/politics/us-baltic-russia.html

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

it will all be good in about 20 days 

 

 

[jg121783 3,907]

Things will be so much better when Obama is gone and we are trading with Russia rather than trying to provoke them into WW3.

[yuna628 9,527]

55 minutes ago, Nature Boy Flair said:

it will all be good in about 20 days 

 

 

You mean in 20 days we'll take a knee as the glorious USSR will be reunited?

[jg121783 3,907]

I wonder how much more Obama will sabotage our foreign policy in the next 20 days. I hope foreign leaders can show some restraint until we are rid of the grand snowflake. 

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

2 hours ago, yuna628 said:

You mean in 20 days we'll take a knee as the glorious USSR will be reunited?

 

It is not necessary to reunite.  Just get NATO out of Russian speaking satellites and remove the intrusive anti missile defense systems from Eastern Europe.  It is easy to appease the bear, but do not poke him.  

[yuna628 9,527]

42 minutes ago, ccneat said:

 

It is not necessary to reunite.  Just get NATO out of Russian speaking satellites and remove the intrusive anti missile defense systems from Eastern Europe.  It is easy to appease the bear, but do not poke him.  

With no defense, The Comrade will easily do as he pleases (recreate USSR by force).

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

13 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

With no defense, The Comrade will easily do as he pleases (recreate USSR by force).

 

Yes but without the Marxist agenda,  Part of a new Christian Europe.

[millefleur 5,035]

5 minutes ago, ccneat said:

 

Yes but without the Marxist agenda,  Part of a new Christian Europe.

 

Yes, we all know what a good Christian Putin is! The one vatnikis believe is a true saint!

[Dakine10 5,452]

3 hours ago, jg121783 said:

Things will be so much better when Obama is gone and we are trading with Russia rather than trying to provoke them into WW3.

 

  The sanctions aren't ending with Obama. The only one's Trump can undo with executive action are the Ukraine sanctions and the cyber hacking, and congress could just as quickly pass new sanctions. All of the previous congressional sanctions against Russia have had overwhelming support from both parties, and congressional Republicans are already calling for stronger sanctions than Obama's executive actions delivered. 

 

  Relations with Russia are not likely to normalize with Putin at the helm. Now I know every few years he says he's going to retire, but all the signs with Putin point to a guy who is going to die in the job. The Russian constitution is designed to enable presidential power, not limit it.

[millefleur 5,035]

1 minute ago, Dakine10 said:

 

  The sanctions aren't ending with Obama. The only one's Trump can undo with executive action are the Ukraine sanctions and the cyber hacking, and congress could just as quickly pass new sanctions. All of the previous congressional sanctions against Russia have had overwhelming support from both parties, and congressional Republicans are already calling for stronger sanctions than Obama's executive actions delivered. 

 

  Relations with Russia are not likely to normalize with Putin at the helm. Now I know every few years he says he's going to retire, but all the signs with Putin point to a guy who is going to die in the job. The Russian constitution is designed to enable presidential power, not limit it.

 

When have relations with Russia ever been "normal"? Would normal be what we had before Maidan/the Crimea debacle?

[Dakine10 5,452]

23 minutes ago, millefleur said:

 

When have relations with Russia ever been "normal"? Would normal be what we had before Maidan/the Crimea debacle?

 

    Yeah, the quasi normalish period between the end of the USSR and the crisis in Ukraine. Give or take a few incidents in between. Otherwise you have to go back 100 years at least. 

[millefleur 5,035]

6 minutes ago, Dakine10 said:

 

    Yeah, the quasi normalish period between the end of the USSR and the crisis in Ukraine. Give or take a few incidents in between. Otherwise you have to go back 100 years at least. 

 

The end of the USSR through the 1990s certainly were not "normal" times for Russia, however. I wonder if it's ever going to be possible for both the US and Russia to be stable at the same time and be in lasting good relations with each other.

[MarkPerry 488]

4 hours ago, jg121783 said:

I wonder how much more Obama will sabotage our foreign policy in the next 20 days. I hope foreign leaders can show some restraint until we are rid of the grand snowflake. 

I appears they are just brushing him off.  I will have a party the day Trump takes the Whitehouse