To further complicate the not so remote risks that this war in Ukraine degenerate into a nuclear conflictjust look at a map. To the left of Ukraine, with Belarus and Russia begins the eastern front of the vast territory that confronts Russia with NATO in Eastern Europe. There are the three Baltic countries. Lithuania, Estonia and Estonia. They are small, housing a total of six million inhabitants in 170 thousand square kilometers.

In 1940 the Soviet Union occupied them and only when the USSR went into crisis until it disappeared from the map in 1992 all three have regained their independence.

When Vladimir Putin traumatized the world with his invasion of Ukraine in late February, the Lithuanian president prophesied: “Ukraine is not the only target of the Russians”. To some it seemed like an outlet because the Baltic countries they are part of NATO and article 3 of the alliance states that an attack on one of its members automatically causes the other 29 to go to war.

In the case of Russia and the United States, the risk is high that conflict end up in World War III.

It was thought that the Russians wanted to reconquer the Baltic countries an unimportant alcoholic dream because I couldn’t explode for what some call it the conflict of the end of the world.

The project in the Duma

This week, however, in the Russian parliament, the Dumathe deputies will deal with the initiatives they decide to abolish the decision of the former USSR of grant independence in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

In these parliamentary projects it is argued that the independence granted by the USSR it was illegal. In addition, some deputies explain a more convoluted theory. The Russian decision must be based on the fact that the three Baltic countries are disputed territories for Russia.

As an article in the Washington Treaty, when NATO was born, it establishes it disputed territories cannot exist in the alliance, the circle would close. NATO should to throw to the three Baltic countries and it is obvious to guess what their fate would be.

Believe it or not, there is a current of Putinian deputies in the Duma that supports the seriousness of this thesiswhich in NATO they consider crazy.

The threat of a Russian decision to annul the independence of the three Baltic countries it’s realthe bill presented by the deputy Yevgeny Fedorof is in the Duma.

From Washington, the US government has made it clear that his country never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union in 1940.

Deputy Fedorov replied that if Russia revokes its independence, the option is simple: NATO must expel them of the alliance or accept “the beginning of a third world war”.

The Baltic, a NATO “lake”

The eastern front is today animated by the presence of thousands of soldiers from NATO countries. There are proposals to increase the number to 25 thousand. Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy also sent planes and pilots to the Baltic countries to ensure their defense.

The eastern front includes the Baltic Sea, where Putin is suffering a massive defeat. His invasion of Ukraine led Sweden and Finland, the two Scandinavian nations that have declared neutrality for decades, to a historic change. Both have applied to join NATO. With Norway, already a member of the Western alliance, its territories surround the Baltic Sea, transforming it into it a lake of the Atlantic alliance. The changes are huge.

David Rossi, expert in military geopolitics, stated that “Putin has lost the war of the European seas. His threats have led Sweden and Finland to renounce their historical neutrality “.

But the reality of this setback that undermines Russia’s military capability in the Baltic and by extension in the Arcticcausing it to lose its position of geopolitical advantage in the cold European seas increases the willingness of Sweden and Finland to protect themselves with the NATO umbrella.

Kaliningrad and its nuclear missiles

The Russian threat it terrified the Swedes and Finns, especially in the last decade. They witnessed the strengthening of the Kaliningrad base.

the Russian enclave created at the end of World War II in old Konisberg, the Prussian capital, which Stalin with great vision incorporated the USSR into the territorial distribution among the victors, it is a powerful nuclear missile base which can reach in a short time the main European capitals.

The Swedes have strengthened the strategic island of Gotland, in the middle of the Baltic Sea, transforming it into an unsinkable aircraft carrier protected with very sophisticated weapons. Finland further modernized its military and purchased 64 F35 jets which paid the American manufacturer ten billion dollars.

A few days ago, President Putin responded to these moves by Sweden and Finland. “We will give an answer”She said.

This was written in May by Manfred Weber, the president of the European People’s Party, the main party of the European Union “Europe needs a nuclear shield”.

“Europe can offer added value to the defense of the continent and must organize a long-term nuclear deterrent,” added Weber.

In Germany, several analysts have pointed this out the Russian atomic threat reiterated almost daily, presents a specific risk in the Kaliningrad enclave, bordered by the Baltic Sea, between Lithuania and Poland. Berlin is only 530 kilometers from Kaliningrad nuclear missiles. It only takes a few minutes if the Russians launch hypersonic missiles, for destroy the capital of Germany.

Rome, correspondent

ap