As we know, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $716 billion defense policy bill last week. This document contains the provision for changing the mandate of the NATO policing mission in the Baltic States.
Perhaps, the Balts have persuaded Washington to replace the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission with an air defense mission. As there are two airfields for NATO air police mission in the Baltic States, which can be turned into new military air defense facilities -- at Siauliai (Lithuania) and at Emary (Estonia).
And this fact can be very dangerous for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
So, three NATO nuclear states -- Great Britain, the United States and France participate in air loitering over The Baltics. More importantly, NATO uses dual-purpose aircraft for this mission that can carry not only conventional weapon on board, but also nuclear weapon such as tactical bombs.
For example, US B-52 strategic bombers were trained in the Baltic sky in January 2018. These aircraft are specific carriers of nuclear weapons.
T his situation resembles The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, only in another part of the Earth.
From history lessons we know, that The October Crisis of 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. That's why it is necessary now to stop patrolling of the Baltic airspace by combat aircraft of NATO countries.
However, the presence of NATO forces alongside Russia's borders is only increasing instead of demilitarization. It's a well-known fact that the construction of a new airfield 60 kilometers away from the Russian border where US air strikes will be stationed is now ending.
So, the military infrastructure of NATO is moving closer to Russia. The number of NATO air forces in The Baltics has increased tremendously over the recent years.
Another similarity of the current situation to the Caribbean crisis is the incident with a Spanish Eurofighter which accidentally fired a missile in Estonia. And there is no word on whether the launch was the result of any fault with the aircraft, pilot error or maybe it was just a deliberate provocation. This is about the professionalism and reliability of the alliance pilots.
By the way, these "professionals" as a part of NATO Air Police are just some kind of "watchdogs". But, with the change in mandate, they will get the right to deliver an assault against Russia. In other words, the transformation of the air police mission into an air defense mission will mean that police functions will be replaced by combat ones.
There is no doubt that this information is well known in the Kremlin and to Putin, as always, will assume more military counter-measures against The Baltics.
Is it really safe? That's the question for the governments of the Baltic States.
As you can see, the authorities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are heating up the situation in the region by giving full control over their airspace to NATO. Taking into account the fact that NATO and US leaders prepare for the offensive military campaign against Russia, it would be better for the Baltic leaders to stop their provocations.
The best way for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to strengthen their security is to develop military cooperation with Russia, rather than escalating tension to please Washington.