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elleng

(130,126 posts)
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:06 PM May 2014

Lithuania Says Russia Suspends Military Inspections Deal.

Source: nyt/reuters

Russia has suspended a 2001 agreement on mutual military inspections with Lithuania, the defense ministry said on Monday, amid growing worries in the Baltic region over Moscow's assertiveness in Ukraine.

Under their agreement, Lithuania could inspect forces in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland that is the headquarters of the Russian Baltic fleet, while Russia could do likewise with the Lithuanian military.

"Lithuania kept all conditions of this agreement and has not given a pretext for such Russian action," a spokesperson for Lithuania's defense ministry said in an e-mail to Reuters. . .

A total of 600 U.S. troops have now been deployed to Poland and the Baltics for infantry exercises, where they are expected to remain on rotation until the end of the year.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2014/05/05/world/europe/05reuters-ukraine-crisis-lithuania-russia.html?hp&_r=0

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Lithuania Says Russia Suspends Military Inspections Deal. (Original Post) elleng May 2014 OP
It could get better. WA wants to close the facility that was built to encase plutonium jtuck004 May 2014 #1
Why do you keep pretending to be an American when you're not? nt okaawhatever May 2014 #7
?????? Comrade Grumpy May 2014 #15
I try, but I can't fool everyone all the time, comrade. <G>n/t jtuck004 May 2014 #19
Kaliningrad, Ma'am, Is One Of the Potential Flashpoints The Magistrate May 2014 #2
Yeah, good point. Benton D Struckcheon May 2014 #5
I Am Certain The German Government Has No Designs In That Direction, Sir The Magistrate May 2014 #6
Me too, Benton D Struckcheon May 2014 #9
Ah, the good Olde 16th Century - Tea Bagger heaven. ChairmanAgnostic May 2014 #10
Anything short of restoration of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is unacceptable, IMHO. Jesus Malverde May 2014 #11
grand Duke Gediminas issued a proclamation giving ChairmanAgnostic May 2014 #12
No mention of the arrival of US troops in Lithuania proper. Jesus Malverde May 2014 #3
The Six Hundred Are Spread Over Several Locales, Sir The Magistrate May 2014 #4
Thanks elleng May 2014 #14
*Arrival of the US invasion force penultimate May 2014 #18
The increase in tensions predates the Ukrainian crisis. Iterate May 2014 #8
They sure can't shop in Kaliningrad, ChairmanAgnostic May 2014 #13
Moldova Puts Borders on Alert Amid Ukraine Unrest Iterate May 2014 #16
Thanks elleng May 2014 #17
 

jtuck004

(15,882 posts)
1. It could get better. WA wants to close the facility that was built to encase plutonium
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:18 PM
May 2014

from our decommissioned nuclear missiles because of cost overruns. The problem is that the nuclear disarmament is taking place under an agreement with...Russia. We have spent much to support those who undermined Ukraine and in the process re-created our old disagreements with the Russians, so now, when we need their cooperation to renegotiate the treaty that removes part of our nuclear threat, we are much less likely to get it, I suspect.

They could very easily look at this as more of our lies, just another cover up for aggression, (after all, we have worked to destabilize that country which housed Russian military installations with money that could have been spent to, say, keep banks from profiting on a foreclosing on many of the 7 million families that have been thrown into the streets in the past few years. or replace part of the food stamps we took away last year) and decide that maybe they should bring their nuclear missiles into a better firing posture.

That would make this whole EU/Russia argument look so very unimportant.

Wouldn't it be ironic if the cookies we passed out to the Neo-Nazi's and others wound up being part of the catalyst that precipitates a nuclear exchange?

The Magistrate

(95,237 posts)
2. Kaliningrad, Ma'am, Is One Of the Potential Flashpoints
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:24 PM
May 2014

It is high on the list of why there is great potential danger if the map of Europe as presently drawn is altered anywhere by force.

The city there used to be known as Konigsberg, and is the old capital of Prussia. It never was Russian, or had any ties to Russia worth speaking of, and is Russian today only by conquest, and the systematic campaign of murderous expulsion directed against it original inhabitants. No one much minded such inflicted on Germans at the time, and I do not voice any particular objection either, given the context and the times. But Russia does not have a shadow of a right to it besides the right of might, and for that matter, neither do Poland or Lithuania, unless one were perhaps to go back to the sixteenth century or so....

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)
5. Yeah, good point.
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:44 PM
May 2014

Revanchism can be done pretty much anywhere you look in Europe. Any country can make a claim somewhere somehow to some piece of their neighbor's territory. Rivers of blood and years of darkness, to use RFK in a different context here, will be the only result of it, which I'm sure is why Merkel's attitude towards Putin has recently hardened. The EU may have its flaws, but the idea of burying the old antagonisms under a union meant to have goods and tourists rather than tanks and soldiers crossing borders is still the right one.

The Magistrate

(95,237 posts)
6. I Am Certain The German Government Has No Designs In That Direction, Sir
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:48 PM
May 2014

But just as certainly there are Germans who want the place back.

A good part of western Poland is really part of Germany, by any historical standard, just as a good part of western Belarus and northwest Ukraine is really Poland, by any historical standard. And there are numerous other items which could be brought up.

The thing is like a loose thread in a knit sweater; start pulling, and you may find yourself without a garment against the cold....

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)
9. Me too,
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:13 PM
May 2014

just agreeing with your point, and speculating that Merkel is thinking the same thing, actually she's probably wondering why anyone would want to start all those old antagonisms up again. She'd be right to wonder.

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
10. Ah, the good Olde 16th Century - Tea Bagger heaven.
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:13 PM
May 2014

Actually, the original germanic tribes were wiped out by the Teutonic Knights (with the tacit permission of the Pope).

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
12. grand Duke Gediminas issued a proclamation giving
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:41 PM
May 2014

freedom of religion in all lands that he had conquered. It was the first decree of its kind, and incredibly advanced for that wicked age. Crusades were all the rage.

Jesus Malverde

(10,274 posts)
3. No mention of the arrival of US troops in Lithuania proper.
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:39 PM
May 2014

Suddenly it's "baltics".

Love how the media just spins away.

The Magistrate

(95,237 posts)
4. The Six Hundred Are Spread Over Several Locales, Sir
Mon May 5, 2014, 12:42 PM
May 2014

It has long been common parlance to refer to 'the Baltic States' as a shorthand; taken together the three barely bulk up one good-sized bloc.

Iterate

(3,020 posts)
8. The increase in tensions predates the Ukrainian crisis.
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:12 PM
May 2014

Last September in particular, among many others.

Russian War Games on Baltic Border Spark Security Fears
By Ott Ummelas and Aaron Eglitis Sep 20, 2013 4:55 PM GMT+0200

...
A Russian exercise this year simulating an air attack on Sweden was a “wakeup call” for the whole Baltic Sea area, Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper cited Estonian President Toomas Ilves as saying Sept. 16.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-20/russian-war-games-on-baltic-border-spark-security-fears.html


This link has more content:
Russian Embassy says Lithuanian defense minister should look up details on war games Zapad 2013 online
http://www.15min.lt/en/article/world/russian-embassy-says-lithuanian-defense-minister-should-look-up-details-on-war-games-zapad-2013-online-529-371428

It gets even more complicated given the close cultural ties with Belarus.
Lithuanian, Belarusian ministers agree to share info on military activities
http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/67134/lithuanian-belarusian-ministers-agree-to-share-info-on-military-activities-201467134/

Most here probably noticed that Sweden is considering a membership request with NATO. This is part of the reason. Yup, Sweden in NATO. Never thought I'd live to see that, or more accurately, never thought they would see the need for it.

It's not all bad news, as the Russians in Kaliningrad can still shop in Poland.

ChairmanAgnostic

(28,017 posts)
13. They sure can't shop in Kaliningrad,
Mon May 5, 2014, 01:43 PM
May 2014

given what a stinking, filthy, polluted, nasty place the soviets had turned it into.

Iterate

(3,020 posts)
16. Moldova Puts Borders on Alert Amid Ukraine Unrest
Mon May 5, 2014, 05:54 PM
May 2014

Speaking of Soviet/Russian enclaves...

Moldova Puts Borders on Alert Amid Ukraine Unrest

CHISINAU, Moldova May 5, 2014 (AP)
By CORNELIU RUSNAC Associated Press

Moldova's government placed the landlocked country's borders on alert Monday, citing concerns about a deteriorating security situation and escalating violence in neighboring Ukraine.

Top Moldovan leaders announced the move in a joint statement after Ukrainian forces deployed an elite unit to the port of Odessa and fighting between government troops and a pro-Russia militia in eastern Ukraine killed combatants on both sides.

President Nicolae Timofti, Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and Parliament speaker Igor Coreman said in the statement that security forces had been ordered "to take all necessary actions to ensure public order inside the country."

They made no reference to any specific threat, but "expressed their concern about the deterioration of the security climate in the region following the escalation of violence in Ukraine," it said, affirming Moldova's support for Ukraine's territorial integrity.
more...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/moldova-puts-borders-alert-amid-ukraine-unrest-23596969
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