COULD NATO DEFEND THE BALTIC STATES? 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹
These are flat countries right on the Western edge of Russia, and they were very important to the Soviet Union when they took them back in 39. These countries are terrified that Russia will invade them because they're very flat and very easy to take. And NATO has always been a bit iffy on them since they joined NATO officially, if Russia does invade, then NATO could could NATO defend the Baltic States will be World War Three
Paul OMahony
@omaniblog · 4:12
And reinforcing will be regarded by the Russians as in effect an act of war or an act of aggression. And we've seen that happen already in relation to Ukraine. So we will, in fact, have, at the very least, the Cold War at that point, there being military forces build up on both sides of the situation and threatening really to cause an expansion of the same throughout the entire NATO boundary with Russia. And I'm not really sure how many countries there are between NATO and Russia
Ophelia Johnson
@LadyO · 3:39
Hey, Michael, first, let me just say, I absolutely love the way you break this down. You make it so simple for the average person to understand exactly what's at stake and what's happening happening. Sometimes I wish I could coach these world leaders because I think the real question is not if they're going to invade them, but what the h*** do you want? Like, what is it that Putin could possibly want with Estonia or Lithuania or Latvia?
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
phil spade
@Phil · 0:35
Michael, this is really great stuff and I immediately went to the podcast. I had missed this on your headline podcast, so I know it's from November. I believe so about halfway through it right now and it is just fantastic. I highly recommend that for everybody. And also I noticed that your most recent podcast is on Russia's Pacific Strategy, which I think is going to make a natural segue into that podcast after I'm done with this one
Obviously, NATO has run many scenarios on this. Rand has done another great study on it. If you actually click the link in the description. The guy we interview is the guy who conducted the study, and he suggests that, yes, it's a balancing act between. Well, yes, defending the Baltics is very difficult and almost impossible with the miniscule troops NATO has currently sitting in the Baltics
You couldn't invade them from the south because obviously the Caucasus Mountains near Georgia and Turkey, you couldn't invade them through the Baltics because of the Carpathian Mountains. You couldn't invade them from the north because obviously the Arctic and the Cola Peninsula is a bit of a pain to get through. And that was it. Effectively, the Russians could concentrate all their forces on the German border
We almost forget that Russia has this coast that's sitting right near the Japan and the South China Sea. At its closest point, Russia has cannons 24 km from the Japanese coastline, and we just completely forget about it. So yeah, I'll definitely do a swell on that and would love to once you get through the ipad, the Baltic episode and then get through the Pacific, one would love to get some questions for you more than happy to answer them if you can't tell
Ophelia Johnson
@LadyO · 2:04
Thank you very much for that. And now I'm like, okay, I need to look at the map because I need to understand where these places are and how this all ties in and where is this mountain range. But it's really so fascinating. And thank you so much for educating me and all of us here on swell about these global issues and geopolitical problems that really shouldn't exist, but do exist based on man fear, our fears, our worst nightmares
Lady, you're making me blush. It's far too nice. Thank you. That does mean a lot. That really does mean a lot. So thanks for the kind words and more than happy to keep doing it. In fact, I'll probably jump on swirl a little later on and maybe recording the one for the Russian Pacific or one of the other episodes we've done yet again. Thank you so much. It really does mean a lot. The community is far too kind to me