Putin’s Big Military Buildup Is Behind NATO Lines
Bolstering Kaliningrad sends a worrying message to Eastern Europe.
Flexing his muscles yet again.
Photographer: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images
Last week I visited Naples and spent time with Jamie Foggo, the four-star admiral in command of NATO’s powerful Joint Forces Command located there. Foggo has responsibility for much of NATO’s European operations and defensive posture from the Balkans to the Black Sea to the Baltics. At the moment, he is preparing for a major exercise, Trident Juncture, focused on countering Russia’s recent increase in the combat posture of its small enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.
Russia is continuing to add real combat capability in Kaliningrad by the day. What is Moscow's endgame, and how will its actions change the correlation of combat forces in Europe?