Russia Needs to Pay for Flying Into NATO Airspace
Putin sending drones and planes over Poland, Estonia and Romania demands a more forceful response.
Putin’s air force is going too far.
Photographer: Vladimir Rodionov/AFP/Getty Images
In the James Bond novel Goldfinger, Ian Fleming wrote this about being shot at: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.” Russia has now sent military drones or manned aircraft across North Atlantic Treaty Organization boundaries three times this month, into Polish, Romanian and Estonian airspace. This is enemy action, no denying it.
The alliance has already held Article IV consultations — triggered when a member-state feels its territorial integrity or political independence is threatened. Next could come a full-blown Article V crisis, demanding a military response under the NATO founding principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all.”