The Suwalki Gap - the potential European flashpoint Vladimir Putin is keeping a close eye on
News.com.au
April 24, 2017
It's one of the most peaceful corners of Europe.
Quiet country roads lead through immaculate towns, skim past lakes and wind their way around virginal forests dotted with oak and spruce.
But defense watchers say this thin strip of land, fully within the European Union, could be a flashpoint of future military action between Russia and the US.
A strategic affairs analyst has even raised the prospect that an emboldened Russia, intent on pushing the Washington-led NATO military alliance away from it's territory, could drop a nuclear bomb on the isolated sliver of land.
Known as the "Suwalki Gap," this 80 km. patch of relatively flat, difficult to defend countryside, straddles Poland and Lithuania.
It's the only land connection between the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - all of which are in the EU and NATO - and their European allies.
On either end of the Suwalki Gap is Putin.
To the west the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, stuffed to the gills with nuclear missiles, and to the east Moscow's close ally Belarus.
It's a nightmare pinchpoint for NATO and it's Baltic partners.
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"The Suwalki Gap - the potential European flashpoint Vladimir Putin is keeping a close eye on"
