Russia and the Baltic States

[SMemmett]

Curious as to what you guys think about the future between Russia and the Baltic States. Regardless of whether or not the Russians did anything to influence the election, I think obviously, the Russians certainly prefered to have Trump as President-elect over Hillary. Especially with Trump's rhetoric concerning NATO.

So anyways, what do you guys think? How big of a threat is there during Trump's term(s) or just in the next decade of Russia attempting to absorb/annex Estonia, etc... back into Russia. And hypothetically what would be the response of a Trump administration?

 

[windriverrange]

Seriously doubt Trump or NATO would do anything. What Putin should really fear is the UN and the new EU army that is being put together....that should scare the bejesus out of those running commie dogs.

I'd be incredibly pissed if it took US leadership to push NATO and therefore the US into a real shooting war over those pissant countries even though they are members of NATO.

 

[MegaPoke]

A couple of thoughts. First, I don't think his rhetoric about NATO should be interpreted as though we are leaving it. It's just currently not a great deal when you look at who does all the heavy lifting and, if nothing else - his administrative focus will be about negotiating better deals. If I'm Putin, I don't read anything into that at all.

I do however read into the worrisome hawklike rhetoric that was coming out of Hillary for a long time. If he picked a side with Trump, my guess is that he really didn't want to get into conflicts with us that could be avoided.

I would also suggest that with all the Generals Trump is loading up into his cabinet, it would be a very, very bad idea to underestimate America over the next 4-8 years. I think it'll be very interesting to see what kind of relationship we actually have with Russia, because I believe the narrative that Trump and his sec state are somehow beholden to Putin is ridiculous. As regards the baltic states, I see pro level negotiators on board now - making conflict less likely, but I also see a much bigger whoopin stick if we need to fight someone.

 

[AC_Exotic]

Russia is always a threat.

At the moment, China and Islamic radicals in the Middle East are larger concerns.

You know, the enemy of my enemy ...

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Of course we aren't leaving NATO. FFS! He's signaling that, he expects the other nations to better pull their own weight and that the U.S. will not continue to pay it all.

This guy agrees: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gates-criticizes-nato-how-much-does-us-pay/

 

[07pilt]

 

[JonnyVito]

Man if you are a women and can get over that 74 year old age you are golden....

 

[Tulsaaggieson]

Curious as to what you guys think about the future between Russia and the Baltic States. Regardless of whether or not the Russians did anything to influence the election, I think obviously, the Russians certainly prefered to have Trump as President-elect over Hillary. Especially with Trump's rhetoric concerning NATO.

So anyways, what do you guys think? How big of a threat is there during Trump's term(s) or just in the next decade of Russia attempting to absorb/annex Estonia, etc... back into Russia. And hypothetically what would be the response of a Trump administration?

Define absorb/annex.

After that "response of a Trump administration": Huge unknown. Trump comes across as kind of hawkish at times, but Trump is a business man first and foremost. Military action costs a lot of money, and is not economical. To be honest this was to me the biggest question mark for Trump going into the election. If I were to guess it would be to let Russia do what ever it wants to do with that for now. Here is why.

It is going to be hard to tell what his advisors are going to tell him. If it were me, I would caution him that the time to confront Russia with a Military show of force has come and gone. You do not want the Russians calling any kind of bluff. If you show force you better mean it. Quite frankly the military is going to take some time to get back into fighting shape if it wants to take on Russia, and Russia knows it. Obama ran off the experience in the military, neglected supplies, and defunded training/operations, and Russian knows that as well. Bush even changed the military footing from that of a cold war set up to that of light anti terrorism task force, again Russia knows this. There are still a few relicts left from the cold war, but the military no longer knows how to fight in that kind of capacity, it would need to relearn how to do this, and that would take at least 2-4 years min. That is without reequipping for that kind of fight. It would take at this point 4-8 years to be fully mission ready to take on Russia if done so in a peace time manufacturing capability. This also doesn't take into effect that US manufacturing has primarily moved over seas. And yes Russian knows this.

I would tell him after that paragraph that I'm only getting warmed up with the list of things that would need to be accomplished to take on this task. Have a great day.