...Clearly, plans are afoot for Moldova. And [Putin] may not yet have given up on Georgia, where Russia already occupies one-fifth of the country and half its Black Sea coastline. Moldova and Georgia are keen to conclude association agreements with the EU this year in a search for security. Moscow will want to torpedo any such development one way or another. Even the Baltic states, despite their NATO and EU membership, may not yet be safe. Estonia and Latvia each have large populations of suffering Russians who — strangely — do not want to leave. In 2007, Russia conducted a very aggressive campaign against Estonia over the removal of a Russian statue from central Tallinn to the suburbs, with extensive cyber-attacks on government institutions and a sudden outburst of angry demonstrations by aggrieved Russians in Estonia. This week a Russian diplomat in Geneva drew an ominous parallel between discrimination against Russians in eastern Ukraine and Estonia. Aggressive and very large Russian-Belarusian military exercises and aerial patrols in the Baltic-Nordic area have become regular events in recent years.... theaustralian.au/national-affairs/opinion/say-nyet-now-or-watch-putins-appetite-expand/story-e6frgd0x-1226861641059
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 00:31:15 +0000
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