Estonia President Toomas Ilves seeks permanent Nato force

a reply to: victor7

Why did Russia keep quiet for years on Baltics joining NATO, but would react sharply when Ukraine even made a move towards the alliance……….answer to this has to come from NATO itself.

The real 800 pound gorilla in the room is the threat of losing dominance in the Black Sea region. Specifically, Crimea (Sevastopol) the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Thats why they waited till now and why they are beginning to react. You hardly hear about this in the main stream, though. Just "Eastern Ukraine" and "Russias offenses".

This thread of instance.

a reply to: intrptr

You seem to ignore the fact ukraine approaced Nato back in the mid 2000s. Yanukoych declined in 2010.

The argument about ukraine nato and russias reaction is disengenuous since ots not new. Secondly russia doesnt own the black sea.

a reply to: victor7

Any nation has the right to join NATO. Its purely voulentary. No one is encroaching on Russia, eastern states are coming to NATO asking for member sip. Primarily, for protection against an out of control Russia. Russia has absolutely no right dictating to any country who the can do business with and which organisations they can join. Maybe if Russia wasn't acting so aggressively, countries wouldn't be clamouring to join up with NATO.

Pro Russians on here go on about the big bad western media while eating up as much biased pro Russian news as possible. If a country wants to join, its none of Russias business.