In Eastern Europe, U.S. Military Girds Against Russian Might and Manipulation

The Baltic States want nothing to do with Russia. All three Baltic nations re-established their independence after WWI. They remained independent until the outset of WWII, when they were invaded and occupied illegally under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Following a brief occupation by Nazi Germany in the early 40's, Russia again took over and illegally occupied the Baltic nations until the Soviet Union fell apart in 1990-91. Seeing that a better life (e.g., freedom from religious persecution, unjust convictions, murders, deportations of intellectuals, and all mail being read by KGB) and more economic possibilities existed by being part of the western world, all three joined NATO and, later, the European Union. Russia wants these nations because they provide warm water sea ports, and have vast forests and good agricultural conditions. One need only visit the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, Estonia or the Museum of the Occupation in Riga, Latvia to really understand the terror and brutality that various Russian, Nazi and Soviet regimes wrought upon these nations. Putin and his predecessors are responsible for the death and destruction of millions of people and the cultures of these nations. NATO is welcome in the Baltics and in Poland. Why? NATO provides a powerful ally to fight the evil that is Putin-led Russia. NATO has grown wiser since the Crimean invasion by Russia in 2014. We will fight Russia on every platform and defeat their aggression.

I wonder why Trump Meets with an attacking enemy?

Trump should describe such exercises as what they are: provocations. Any military expert would tell you that if Russia was truly interested in offensive action in the Baltics, they could overrun them in a matter of days. Only those who believe in imperialism and the military industrial complex benefit from provocations.

The USA gins this conflict up. Germany wants to have cordial relations with Russia, especially as the USA empire crumbles and its Presidents are so obviously un-indicted war criminals. Russia also has lots of gas, and the USA has none to offer.

Sorry Poland... I'm no longer willing to pay to protect you from the Russians. You are unworthy of our support.

When Khrushchev administratively transferred Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1954 there was actually one country that had objections, namely the United States, who feared that the large military base in Sevastopol would fall into the hands of local party bosses in Kiev. But Moscow kept control of the base, and so it continued even after 1991. In the same year there was a referendum in which an overwhelming majority voted for reunion with their real homeland. But Russia was a totally defeated country and any concessions to it were not even to think about. Then the violent coup in Kiev in 2014 forced Russia to the most unique "brutal and vehement annexation" in world history: not a single shot was fired. Ukrainian officials either defected or went packing, fully aware that people in Crimea consider themselves Russian.

Russia remembers June 22, 1941 and Hitler has focused its voice on our border , to us you are nothing of Hitler are not different , the same deadly enemy, then killed 27 million Soviet citizens , this will never happen again, if necessary we launch a preemptive attack on concentrations of us troops on our border , the entire population of Russia will support it 100%

"The exercise, which involved 18,000 American and allied troops, offers a window into how Army commanders are countering not just Russian troops and tanks, but also twisted truths. They occurred as President Trump is sidling up to Moscow by bad-mouthing NATO, calling for Russia to be readmitted into the Group of 7 industrialized nations, and planning a summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia next month." The disconnect between the president's words and behavior and the military's schedule of exercises and planning is more than disconcerting. It feels like Donald Trump is taking his marching orders from Putin while the military is on another planet, pretending Trump's foreign policy team doesn't exist. There may be a hard day of reckoning ahead as America gradually discovers whose side the president is on, and why. The distance between Mattis, reported on last week, and Donald Trump is alarming. This split-screen view of an American president at odds with longtime American foreign policy goals will, I fear, end badly. It's one thing to be adrift, quite another to watch a captain actively running America's ship of state into the shoals.

With Trump turning pro-Putin, Europe and NATO ought to be worried more about Trump than Russia.

I can't think of anyone who knows more about the Russian plutocracy than Canada's Minister of Foreign affairs, Chrysta Freeland. I suspect if our own economy wasn't so entwined with that of Russia's soon to be plutocratic ally we would have taken the action I suspect we will soon be forced to take. I do not think our future is with the United States of America. Chrystia Freeland sits at the right hand of Canada's Prime Minister and her scholarship and her books clearly reveal she is not a Russophile. I understand the USA is anti-intellectual but here in Canada our Foreign Minister (Secretary of State) is as versed in Putin's Kleptocracy as well as anyone in the concentration of wealth in the top .01%. Chrystia Freeland understands Russian agression and oversees our Nafta negotiations. It will take a decade to dis-entwine our economy from that of the USA but I expect that a decade from now Poland, the Ukraine, Finland , Latvia will be allies and there may well be a tariff wall if not a steel and concrete wall on our southern border.

If the Russians are trying to destroy the Atlantic Alliance, they have the best possible ally in Donald Trump. They swell need do nothing but stand aside and let him do his work. It seems a role once played by Benedict Arnold.

I admire Poland, Lithuanian and Norway. They've got their eye on the Russian ball. To a man, their military officers come off as mature, tough, logical-thinking, determined, experienced, well-informed, cyber war savvy, highly trained, rational and well-educated with a firm and accurate grasp of political and military history under their belts. The American public gets far too little news about the contributions our allies on our behalf. I was so interested to read that the Lithuanian officers in this story had fought alone side us in Afghanistan and Iraq. A personal thank you to all of you from me. And, cheers for this sophisticated demonstration of NATO strength on Russia's border.

“allied defense ministers met recently in advance of a NATO summit meeting in July, they approved a plan to ensure that by 2020, at least 30,000 troops, plus additional attack planes and warships, can respond to aggressions within 30 days.” This is an example why Trump hates NATO so much. If Mexico invaded USA, do you think it would take us 30 days to respond? We would destroy the threat in about a day. But Europe has spent so little on their military that they are completely useless and dysfunctional. They let us defend them, while they use the trillions saved to provide free health care and college and pensions to their citizens.

I wonder if Trump will cancel all future American military exercises in Poland and the Baltic Republics after he meets with Putin next month in Helsinki. Trump may even give Putin the go ahead to invade the Baltic Republics in exchange for a Trump hotel and golf course in Moscow...anything is possible. Putin knows that Trump will probably be voted out of office in 2020 so he will be pushing Trump to look the other way as he tries to retake all of Eastern Europe not just Poland and Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Most of Americans just don't care about foreign affairs until their boys and girls are returned in body bags by the thousands from battlefields in lands they didn't know existed.

Putin loves these military displays, they help to solidify his political power and silence his opponents. Saber rattling only increases tensions. How would we feel if Russia and Mexico started having joint military maneuvers on our border?

“The Russians are actively seeking to divide our alliance, and we must not allow that to happen” - sorry Dan Coats, Putin-trump have already succeeded and accomplished dividing NATO. Indeed, trump will be negotiating NATO's surrender to Putin himself at his upcoming meeting with nothing in return. At the very least trump will end military deterrence and military exercises as he has done on the Korean peninsula at the request (orders) from Putin. As Kim continues to improve his nuclear infrastructure, trump continues to parrot his obvious lies that he has fixed the problem and Kim is denuclearizing. In fact, trump has to double down on his lies about denuclearization because he can't be seen as having failed, and Kim knows that and is taking full advantage of that fact expand under trump's cover-lies. So now we have trump providing cover for Putin, Kim and other tyrants. With and exponentially increasing $21 trillion in debt, thanks to trump and his ilk, trade wars with our military allies and friends, Putin and China will both have America where they want - bankrupt, isolated and no military strength outside American borders. The days of bankruptingly expensive weapons that's unreliable and difficult to maintain should be over. Smaller, quicker, reliable, cheaper should be the focus. The days of uniforms are also over - Russians no longer use uniforms, except for exercises, letting them infiltrate amongst their easy to identify uniformed opponents as they did in Ukraine.

Training exercises maybe a thing of the past with our European allies just as they are with our South Korean friends. Europe is on its own. As for America, Trump hasn’t done one thing to prevent an election cyber attack from occurring here again. The shining beacon on the hill is slowly floating out to sea and, with a Supreme Court looking solidly in Trumps corner our only life line is the legislature. Let’s hope some sanity comes from the midterms.

Every day I read in the paper about "Putin's take over" of Crimea. I do not support Mr. Putin but this is simply dishonest. Crimea has been part of Russia since 1783 and Catherine the Great. It has been Russian longer than Florida has been American. The summer palace of the Tsar was there. If you look on Frank Capra's WHY WE FIGHT films on Russia, on YouTube, you will see the US Government had no trouble identifying Crimea as part of Russia--when the Soviets were battling German invaders there in World War Two. The last Soviet leader, Mr. Gorbachev, hailed from Sebastopol, their big city, and had been the Communist Party chief there. The people there speak Russian and consider themselves to be Russian. They have no wish to be ruled by Ukrainian fascists put in power by a CIA coup. Our ignorance of history is the warmongers best friend.

Putin would like to reintegrate all of the former states of the U.S.S.R. into the Russian Federation, and if he can do so by military force he will do it. Russia is a state without the ability to compete in the world as it is. It's sources of wealth are all from extracted resources, sold on the world markets as commodities. The industrial base of the country was built hastily and roughly using technology that never compared well with the technology of most industrialized countries. The result has been that, with the exception of arms, nobody wants Russia products, anywhere. Russia would need to correct it's science and math educational knowledge to meet the more sophisticated educations taught around the world, and to redesign and rebuild it's entire infrastructure. Without generating more wealth it cannot do this. So Putin would hope that by intimidation and force to make it's neighbors trade with Russia and give a chance for Russia to make more wealth. Trump is focused upon having good personal business arrangements for himself and his family in Russia, and he could not care less what Russia does to it's neighbors. So he would be tempted to let Russia run wild in Eastern Europe. And that would embolden Putin to act.

Born in Switzerland, I can appreciate the history of little determined Folks to fight big oppressors ! The Russian Revolution was basically that idea, before it got perverted by Communism ! Americans do well helping on the sides of freedom loving and hard working partners ! Thank you NYTimes for such in debt reporting !

Re : Crimea History The Crimea was part of Russia from 1783 until 1991 when the USSR collapsed. That is, it was part of Russia for 208 years During the USSR, Russia, for efficiency reasons, transferred the administration of Crimea, from the RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR). Both being part of the USSR , it was entirely an internal affair. How much did the Crimea cost Russia ? Russia defended its Crimean territory in the Crimean War, started by the UK and France, eager to expand into the crumpling Ottoman empire. Russia lost the war but kept the Crimea. Russian casualties 256 000 . Russia loses Crimea in 1991 to the Ukraine: During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine became independent (as did many other parts of the former USSR) and used the opportunity of a weak new central government called Russia, to acquire the Ukraine - that had no land connection to Russia. To state that Russia "brutally annexed" the Crimea is inconsistent with the historical record. More accurate would be that she "reacquired" territory that she had owned for over 200 years.

Russia is not a military threat. A PRC report concluded that in a head to head confrontation with Turkey (a NATO member) Russia would be overwhelmed, according to the Chinese metrics. What this means is Russia is relegated to "active measures" in it's never-ending war with the West (zapad). The Trump administration is its high-water mark. We must show Putin we do not intimate well. Stand up against him and he will back down. However, national security begins at home. Mueller's work must be allowed to progress.

NATO allies and especially Germany needs to step up readiness... And how very European of them to create a quick reaction force of 30 days readiness... :)) This is the biggest joke... in 30 days... anything more than 30 hours is just a future-POW regiment...

Well, it's nice to see that former Eastern Bloc countries, as well as our own military, are taking the threat of conflict with Russia seriously. I take it that part of the daily intelligence briefing didn't make it to the President's desk? Or am I just being old-fashioned in assuming he reads anyway? Oh that's right, Fox & Friends is on now. Balancing our own military's stance vis-a-vis China and Russia on the one hand, and Trump's affinity for ZTE and Putin on the other, you can't help but wonder if our own military coup is being quietly discussed in some tents... And where is Mueller on this? He's keeping to himself, until after the midterms. Of course, if "the law" changes between now and when/if he releases his report, his report could be legally null-and-void anyway. Remember when Republicans tried to out-do each other in being "tough on Moscow"? Ah, those were the days...

This shows to me that Mattis is operating in a different reality than Trump. Trump has made obvious moves to disenfranchise the Transatlantic alliance, yet much of the push back against Russia on the continent comes from NATO and the United States. Poland, the Baltics and Norway are asking overtly for American protection. This runs counter to Trump's actions. He wants to retreat from Europe as well as the Korean peninsula. He is a vocal critic of NATO. He has shown no interest in challenging Russian influence there. And has done the opposite, attempting indirectly and directly toward toppling EU dominance. Merkel directed tweets show how deliberately Trump and his administration are attempting to get her thrown out of power. Mattis has been the most reasonable Trump cabinet head from the get go. Yet he is reportedly now on the outs with Trump. He was not informed about the Trump decision to not hold South Korean military exercises along with other important decisions. If Mattis is replaced with another right wing acolyte then what happens to these former Soviet nations?

Unnecessary military exercise out of fear only scare the opposite side and they react with more aggression.The cycle will never stop. It is best if one side calms down and show some trust of not hurting the other side. In the past millions of people innocent or in armies have been killed for what?

And Germany, the supposed powerhouse of Europe, couldn't contribute a battalion (400 men) to an exercise this winter because they didn't have enough protective vests, tents, or cold weather gear to equip them. And the German air force can keep only 4 jet fighters operational, according to a recent review. No spare parts, not enough trained pilots. And Germany spent 20 Billion Euros to support illegal migrants and "refugees" in the country in 2016. Maybe NATO should worry more about this "weak sister" than some Russian blogger. Do you want to go to war with these clowns, Mad Dog?

It is just remarkable that this economically pea of a state (russia with the gdp that is 50% less than California's) can make us feel insecure and make us feel we have to promote our military strength so.

NATO unjustifiably expanded up to the Russian border. The lawfully elected gov't in Ukraine was overthrown in an illegal coup by anti Russian right wing nationalists. The US has fallen sway to neo con ideologues who think the collapse of the Soviet empire was not enough. The countries borders should have been broken up into tiny statelets befitting a country that had lost the cold war. But Putin had a few tricks up his sleeve allowing Crimea to opt out of Ukraine into Russia and stalemating the senseless civil war between Ukrainians and Russians in Ukraine. Putin though is anti liberal democrat. A nationalist who subverts the press and refuses to allow fair elections. Putin in the Russian press is a first rate leader.