Russia and Europe

By Frederick W. Kagan and George Barros – All this activity is the culmination of years of painstaking Russian planning and effort that long predated active Russian preparations to threaten an invasion of Ukraine. It is another example of Putin’s ability to conceive and pursue coherent strategies over a long period of time, not just to seize opportunities. And Putin has always meant it to threaten NATO as well as Ukraine. The threat to Poland and the Baltic States from a Russian ground forces deployment in Belarus is very serious, as we have argued elsewhere. NATO must respond to this threat urgently. The U.S., Canada, and their Western European partners should immediately begin deploying mechanized forces of their own to northeastern and eastern Poland and should prepare to keep those forces there indefinitely. Read More