The Little Guy Against the Bear

There were two stories in the Wall Street Journal last week that tell of the difficulty in being one of Russia’s neighbors.  They are about the small countries of Estonia and Moldova both of which face the Russian Bear every day.  The Russians have not given up on getting them back and use the same techniques so familiar in the Ukraine.  The Moldova article mentions Georgia, just so we don’t forget about that one either.

Mostly, we call what the Russians do harassment- meddling in elections, undermining the military, degrading politicians that do not favor their views, running campaigns to influence every person they can reach.  Both of these countries are small and face the Bear bravely.

Both the leaders who wrote these articles are calling for the same thing - they need help.  It takes huge amounts of energy to fight all the time, and the Russians are both relentless and brazen about their work.  Europe has finally come around to the idea that Russia cannot just take these little states like they did Crimea.  The lesson there was clear.  I always thought that President Obama was talking about Crimea when he said he would have to wait until after the election to carry out his agreements with Russia.  He said that on an open mike and not for public consumption.  Now that little place is gone and the rest of the world will not be getting it back.

We need to give these countries some aid of various types - cyber training, intelligence support, weapons for their own defense, and help them organize.  First they need to organize with one another.  they can fight better together.  Next, they need to organize with Europe which should help them for their own well being.  None of them want Russian controlled countries on their borders like they had for years.  But, like in Ukraine last week, there is room for the rest of the world to help too.  Putting Javelins in their will make a lopsided situation less so.  It doesn’t take much, and like many business executives in them world, President Trump is just paying attention to cries for help.  He doesn’t have to do much, but paying attention is important.  Same for Europe and the border countries of the old Soviet Union.