Originally Posted by
racedo
Why would they wish to rule the Baltic ? There is a choke point bridge that pretty much blocks the Baltic if it became necessary.
Bearing in mind that the Transit route across Northern Russia is now open and growing massively then needing a route into the Baltic seems a moot point. Exactly what comes into Baltic ports than can not go into Northern ports or be transitted by rail from Asia ?
The rush to invest massively in the military seems to be pursuing someone's agenda that will make a lot of money for suppliers but nobody else.
Why do they want to rule the Crimea and Black sea? The Bosporus blocks the Black sea from rest of the world with a NATO country controlling it.
It really isn't that Russia would not have ANY other route, it's about controlling the area.
If the Baltic sea would of no interest to them, why is there a significant naval station and army presence in Kaliningrad? Why are their military aircraft continuously testing the alertness of neighbouring countries in the Baltic sea (Finnish F/A-18 jocks have had some rather nice pictures of a multitude of Russian planes within Finnish airspace).
Remembering that Crimean occupation was argumented with "russian inhabitants demanded it", so imagine the feelings in Baltic states with a rather significant minority of ethnic russians (Latvia: 25%, Estonia 24%, 5% in Lithuania). Imagine if those minorities started "demanding Russia to come and save them". No wonder the baltic countries rushed to NATO asap. Or Poland. Or many other ex Warsow treaty countries.
We are looking at the eastern bear from different angles and backgrounds.