President Putin is taking it easy waiting for November Prez elections in USA
By Sushil Kutty
Sweden joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Europe is more secure. Finland joined and it wasn't similar hype. Finland is Sweden's neighbour. Both added muscle to NATO. The feeling runs deep — deeper than the Atlantic Ocean — that the more European countries join NATO, the more threatened Russia will feel and threatening Russia's expansionism is the raison de' etre for NATO. It is no laughing matter, but the free nations of NATO take this dictum seriously.
Ukraine presented them the chance to prove themselves right. Finland and Sweden's recruitment into NATO is a challenge to Putin's ongoing Ukraine war. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in celebrating Sweden joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. At last, European security has gotten Swedish guarantee.
Kristersson did the courtesy and Blinken welcomed NATO's 32nd member. With Sweden in NATO ranks, the USA feels secure and Europe can hopefully go on giving a better life to immigrants pouring into European borders and giving sleepless nights to original inhabitants, among them those of France and Germany. NATO cannot do zilch to the marauding immigrants, but Putin is behind both NATO expansion and the Ukraine war.
Take Putin out and Russia's reason to fear NATO at its borders ceases to exist. and the Russian aggression against Ukraine will go up in a puff of smoke. Putin had early on warned of NATO going into expansion mode and Putin is prone to flashbacks. The West now believes, after Sweden's induction, that a “bigger, stronger NATO” is at Russia's doorstep and Putin should learn to live with the dread.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken couldn't keep the elation out. “There is no clearer example today of the strategic debacle that Ukraine has become for Russia,” he said standing next to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. “Everything that Putin sought to prevent, he has actually precipitated by his actions, by his aggression.”
Sweden and Finland in NATO have altered the region's security. Sweden and Finland will give NATO more power in the far north, where Russia has its second-strike nukes. Sweden and Finland will also boost NATO presence in the region of the Baltic Sea, also covering the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. NATO is itching to fight Ukraine's war.
To South Asians all this might sound off their grid, but no country anywhere can ignore the Ukraine War and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been speaking of India's role in resolving the differences that started the war and those that remain standing in the way of stopping the war — otherwise, to the average Indian, unemployed and at the workplace, what Sweden and Finland do is strictly way out of range.
News is that Sweden has a navy with experience of operating in the Baltic Sea. Also, Swedish fighter jets patrol the skies above the Baltics and NATO will be better off for that, especially during times of emergencies. Stockholm is preparing to send Swedish troops to join the NATO forces in Latvia. With one more language added, NATO has become not only stronger but also language richer.
“Sweden's accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer, and the whole Alliance more secure,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was quoted on ‘X'. Prime Minister Kristersson said it was “historic” and promised not to miss the defence spending target of 2 percent of GDP for NATO members.
Kristersson was talking about former US President Donald Trump's conditions for NATO's survival. The Republican presidential nominee doesn't like NATO overly and hates NATO members which do not pay their share of NATO's upkeep. “Pay up or perish,” is Trump's message to NATO. Trump is also a peacemaker and his “America First” and “MAGA” policies do not fit NATO aggression.
A Trump victory in November 2024 will be bad news for NATO and Putin will sleep better than on any night so far into the Ukraine War. Trump must be laughing at bombastic statements like “Unity and solidarity will be Sweden's guiding light as a NATO member, we will share burdens, responsibilities and risks with other allies.” Nevertheless, Sweden's NATO admission is an important signal to Putin that his time's up. Henceforth, there will be serious pushback.
But Putin is silent and his silence could be pregnant with plentiful surprises. Russia did not immediately comment on Sweden. The response to Finland's entry a year earlier wasn't different. Russians have the irritating habit of talking in general terms when they should be adopting a “military posture” to NATO's membership drive and geographical expansion.
IPA Service
