Baltics Want NATO ‘Safeguard’ if Ukraine Situation Worsens

[amandabeech]

13. I visited Lithuania in 1995, and was able to talk to quite a few Lithuanians.

There were many Russians still in that country despite the fact that Lithuania had broken away from the USSR/Russia in '91 or '92. Russians were importing Fiats through the port of Kleipeida (sp) that the Germans called "Memel" that were similar to their Fiat-built Lada, an inexpensive car. Plus a lot of Russians seemed to want to stay in their home no matter who was running the government.

My friend and I got lots of questions about whether the US would come to their aid if Russia decided to grab them back. They pointed at our failure to help the Chechens defend themselves against Russia.

My friend and I pointed out that Chechnya is deep inside Russia and Asia and would be very difficult for the US to access. We also pointed out that there are many Lithanian-Americans (Chicago is the big hub), and that Lithuanians are our European cousins, so to speak. The Lithuanians weren't convinced.

My understanding is that there are still large communities of Russians in each of the three Baltic states--Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia--who could conceivably claim that they were threatened, and call for help from Mother Russia.

The Baltics are NATO countries, and I don't see how beefing up the NATO presence in those countries would be such a bad thing. Really, Putin could not expect NATO to do absolutely nothing in NATO countries abutting Russia or Ukraine. I don't mean a big show of force, but something to show that NATO appreciates their particular situation. Should Russia move further into Ukraine, a larger presence would be appropriate, IMHO.