The war between ukraine and russia upset socio-economic diplomatic and military balances in the world after the war the world turned into a two-pole arena while russian's aggressive policies created a crisis in the eastern european wing the baltic countries had to take strategic precautionary steps because of the war estonia has
announced that it wants to exercise its legal right to close the four point eight kilometer corridor in the baltic sea while the war between ukraine and russia is still on ongoing this striking decision created a cold shower effect for the moscow administration the reason for this was that the russian fleet in the baltic would be forced by this decision
and then mobility would be restricted thanks to this legal right estonia which is a NATO member has brought up the possibility of preventing the passage of russian ships from the baltic sea. This was literally an approach that would create a diplomatic and naval crisis for russia looking at it Estonius creation of a contiguous zone from nineteen
kilometers of territorial waters in the baltic to a width of twenty two kilometers allows the country to search ministry and civilian vessels in the gulf of finland to monitor compliance with estonian laws the gulf for finland which is currently located in this region was created to leave a four point eight kilometer wide corridor officially estonia
can closed this corridor by declaring its a contiguous zone. In fact this is russia's st petersburg and all other ports in the leningrad region and the baltic fleet of the russian federation at the same time the main issue here is not the announcement itself but the possibility of estonian control of the region on the other hand we know that the entire
estonian fleet consists of four ships estonia has the lindderman class minelayer yeahl wabola and three sanddown class mine layeryers and the border service also owns the kindrrel curbits multipurpose rescue craft and cutters also if we include in the situation that in twenty twenty one estonia bought blue sp spear and tarship missiles i e five gssm
to be included in the coastal defense complex from israel the estonian navy has now strengthened a bit but in terms of naval capabilities estonia is unlikely to oppose the russian federation's baltic fleet on the other hand this is not so important when it comes to the fact that the country is a nato member and any attack on a qatter would be an
attack on any alliance member the situation is slightly different when nato membership is involved however although estonia's desire to use its right to close the baltic sea with nato's support sets an extremely interesting precedent for russia it should not be forgotten that the kremlin has repeatedly ignored any issue that is believed to lead to an
escalation in other words the tension of the ukraine russia war may increase quite a lot on an international scale russia constantly uses this war strategy creating tension has become a tradition for the moscow administration but the baltic members should never heated russia's baseless threats and should constantly support the kiv administration in
the ukrainian war because russia can become much more powerful in any threat and try to intimidate the world with its decision to close the baltic seat to the russians estonia clearly showed us how brave it is and that it stands with ukraine in this war. The balstic states latvia and estonia stood against the moscow administration's orientation in the
ukrainian war from the very beginning the moscow administration accused estonia and latvia which are members of nato and the eu of being completely hostile to russia the decision which increased the tension in world politics was discussed for a long time thereupon the moscow administration directly announced that it had lowered the level
of diplomatic relations with estonia the estonian government then warned the russian ambassadors to leave the country during critical period estonia did not spare its military and financial support to ukraine in addition the estonian cabinet of ministers approved an updated national security strategy that shows russia as the main threat the decision
adopted by estonia in the direction of anti-russian covered not only the military defense aspect but also international activity in the direction of economic security stability in the provision of vital services internal security and defense partnership according to estonian prime minister kai kali the concept was updated as a result of the deteriorating
international situation in the west in general estonia's main task in the concept was the prevention of aggression against the country in addition with this decision estonia has proven once again that it openly supports ukraine in the freedom struggle according to the decision taken by estonia and attack by russia should have been impossible therefore
estonia's defense expenditures were increased to two point eight percent of gdp and thus the defence budget exceeded one billion euros on the other hand with sweden and finland soon joining the north atlantic treaty organisation the alliance must act quickly to develop plants that acknowledge the new geopolitical reality in the baltic sea region
immediate implementation of these plans is also very important in order to implement the decision to close the baltic sea completely to russian ships more quickly if nato takes the right steps the participation of sweden finland will allow the alliance to more easily defend the baltic states and more effectively deter russian aggression in the area in fact
nato needs to constantly update its contingency plans as the security and environment in europe evolves and new members join the alliance the past nato was often too slow to take these steps for example in two thousand and four after three baltic states estonia latvia and lithuania joined the union nato hesitated to develop contingency plans for the
baltic states fearing that it might be against russia this indifference began to change after the Russia invasion of georgia in two thousand and eight meanwhile NATO finally developed its first contingency plans for the baltic states however the alliance did not fully take its security responsibilities on the eastern flank seriously and did not develop
adequate measures until russia's first invasion of ukraine in twenty fourteen but soon after russia's invasion began the us deployed an infantry division in each of the three baltic states on a rotational basis after the twenty sixteen nato summit in waldo this modest u rotating presence has evolved into the formation of four advanced forward
presence multinational battalions stationed and poland and the baltic states in twenty twenty the alliance adopted new defence plans for the baltics since russia's second invasion of ukraine in february twenty twenty two nato has agreed to transform its true presence in the baltics from a battalion-sized force to a brigade where and when needed
as sweden and finland will soon become nato members the alliance will have to once again update its plan for the baltic sea region sweden and finland joining nato would be good for the alliance for several reasons both countries have strong armies that will add significant capabilities to the alliance in addition both provided significant military and
humanitarian aid to ukraine perhaps most importantly the entry of sweden and finland into the alliance provides much needed clarity regarding their expected role in the event of russia aggression in the region specifically nato can more easily defend the three baltic states if sweden and finland join the alliance only the other hand russia and
belarus are located in the east of the baltic states to the west lithuania shares a border with russia's kaingrad exclave only lithuania shares a land border with another non-baltic nato member to the southwest poland a one hundred and four kilometer border between kaliningrad and belarus known as the swalki pass is a serious factor in
this location but without key countries like finland and sweden in nato the three baltic states are geographically isolated from the rest of the alliance this geographic isolation complicates nato's contingency planning for the baltic states while russian military planners always assumed that in a crisis finland and sweden would come to nato's aid
nato's military planners had no such guarantee when finland and sweden finally joined the alliance nato's roles in regional security planning will finally become clear .
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