Meanwhile, (NATO Secretary General Mark) Rutte delivers a very stark warning in the opening lines of his speech in Berlin as he says:
“I’m here today to tell you where Nato stands and what we must do to stop a war before it starts. And to do that, we need to be crystal clear about the threat: we are Russia’s next target, and we are already in harm’s way.”
He says that while the decision to accelerate defence spending at Nato’s Hague summit earlier this year was welcome, “this is not a time for self-congratulation.”
“I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now. Allied defence spending and production must rise rapidly. Our armed forces must have what they need to keep us safe.”
Rutte says that Russia “has become even more brazen, reckless and ruthless towards Nato and towards Ukraine.”
They could roll in with tanks, if enough pro-Russian parties came into power in the EU. The Baltic countries are not very big. Creating a situation where an Article 5 is called by a small country, but not answered, would be the ideal result.
Let’s also not forget that Putin has only done a very limited amount of mobilization so far.