Prospects of this troop movement were announced last weekend by German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius who stated that “Germany is ready to deploy a combat-ready brigade in Lithuania on a permanent basis," after Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda urged NATO to bolster the bloc’s eastern flank.
Commenting on this development, military expert and retired colonel Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik that this move was made not by Germany but by the German elite that currently destroys “all of the foundations” of the post-WWII Germany.
“Peaceful Germany, prosperous Germany, successful Germany, the Germany whose prosperity was based on the wealth acquired by cooperating with Russia – all of it was cast aside. They are moving towards the militarization of the economy and the militarization of their country,” he said, adding that the German elite basically renounce all the “post-war experience” accumulated during the chancellorships of Gerhard Schroder and Angela Merkel.
Matviychuk warned that the actions of some of the more brash NATO members such as Poland and the UK related to the ongoing Ukrainian conflict increase the possibility of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, and that in this context, the Baltic States’ eagerness to become a NATO staging area may be misplaced.
“If a confrontation between [Russia] and NATO occurs, the Baltic States as a sovereign NATO enclave would cease to exist during the first hours of the war because they are strategic areas that would be either destroyed or captured by our troops,” he explained.
The military expert also noted that, if the creation of a NATO air defense system in the Baltic States, which may be announced at the bloc’s upcoming summit in Vilnius, does occur, it would pose a threat to Russia and thus would likely prompt Moscow to respond.
“All this air defense system [NATO] would create in the Baltic States, it would be aimed against our aerospace system. And we would be forced to overcome that air defense system of theirs,” he said, adding that Russia’s actions would depend on how the situation may develop. “There are options involving electronic countermeasures, deception.”