Putin Now Threatening Nuclear Response Over Kaliningrad

Is Vladimir Putin growing unstable? Paranoid? Fearful of losing his grip on power? The answers to those questions may be found in a strange place: Kaliningrad.

Kaliningrad is a city in the Kaliningrad Oblast, a detached Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland, both members of NATO. It's a heavily militarized place, and Tsar Vladimir I seems worried about it; thus his recent, rather alarming statement that any move to isolate or take over Kaliningrad would result in a nuclear response by Russia.

Russia’s warning that it could resort to nuclear weapons if NATO attempts to isolate Kaliningrad is raising new concerns that the heavily militarized Russian exclave could become a flashpoint between Moscow and the alliance, as experts warn the territory is already being used to pressure Europe through hybrid warfare.

Moscow warned NATO in a diplomatic document that it was prepared to use "the entire arsenal of forces and capabilities at its disposal, including nuclear weapons" if alliance members attempted to isolate Kaliningrad from the rest of Russia, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Kaliningrad, a Russian territory geographically separated from the Russian mainland, sits on the Baltic Sea between NATO members Poland and Lithuania and hosts significant Russian military assets, including elements of Moscow’s Baltic Fleet.

While Russia, and by "Russia" we can probably assume "Putin," is making some bellicose noises here, including threatening to hit what we presume are NATO member nation capitals and major military headquarters, he's made those kinds of noises before, and so far, he hasn't tossed any hot rocks at anyone.

The Russian document also raised the possibility of strikes against "decision-making centers" in NATO member states from the outset of a conflict.

NATO rejected Moscow’s allegations in a response reviewed by Fox News Digital, saying the alliance is defensive and that none of its exercises or activities threaten Russian territory. The alliance also urged Russia to stop its "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric."

NATO isn't about to make any moves on Kaliningrad; there's no compelling reason to think they would. And Russia, by which we mean Putin, isn't going to stop with his irresponsible nuclear rhetoric. He's done it before, and he'll do it again. 

Here's the thing, though: Why Kaliningrad? Why now?

The first possibility is that this is mostly for internal consumption; it's intended to make Tsar Vladimir I and his government look hard, tough, decisive, and to make it look as though they confronted NATO and made them back down. To anyone with enough brains to pound sand, that seems a ridiculous tactic, but Russia exercises a lot more control over their media than the nations of Western Europe and the United States; also, we might note that we have our share of people who will believe the most ridiculous corral litter here, too, as is evidenced by the rise of the commie "democratic socialists."

The second possibility is that Putin is losing control, or thinks he is. He may be seeing his grip on control of Russia slipping away; he did, after all, involve Russia in a quagmire in Ukraine that has cost a million and a half Russian people killed or wounded. He may be attempting to deflect attention from that, which seems like a kind of a Hail Mary tactic.

The third possibility is that the aging Putin (73) is starting to deteriorate, mentally, and that is making him paranoid and possibly unstable. We've seen that in the United States, too — remember Joe Biden?

In any case, we can count on one thing: NATO won't make any move on Kaliningrad, and it isn't because of Putin's blustering; it will be, simply, because there's no good reason to.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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