Former NATO commander calls for 'neutralization' of Russian region

Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg) belonged to Germany until the end of World War II, when it was handed over to the Soviet Union under the Potsdam Agreement. It remained part of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and, after successive waves of NATO expansion, was completely surrounded by members of the military alliance.
In an article for Bloomberg, published on May 9 to coincide with Russia’s 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, Stavridis outlined his views on Kaliningrad, seeing it as the last remaining nuisance preventing the Baltic Sea from becoming a “NATO lake.”

“A quick look at the map shows that this is largely (but not entirely) true – the coastline has some Russian territory. The rest of the littoral is NATO: Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Denmark,” said the retired US Navy admiral and former NATO supreme allied commander. Stavridis praised last year’s Baltic Operations exercise as a demonstration of “how NATO can use its Baltic Sea forces in the naval domain” to send “a disturbing signal” to Russia.

“Suggest that NATO use its Baltic Lakes to put pressure on tiny Kaliningrad, which acts as a geographical wedge between NATO’s Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and the rest of the alliance,” Stavridis writes. “In the event of war, Kaliningrad would need to be neutralized so that Russian land forces – likely operating through Moscow’s vassal state of Belarus – could not control the crucial Suwalki corridor.”

The Suwalki Corridor is a narrow strip of land between Russia’s ally Belarus and Kaliningrad, running along the Lithuanian-Polish border. Following the conflict in Ukraine, NATO’s Baltic members have restricted land traffic between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad under EU sanctions. However, they have stopped short of imposing a full blockade, as some analysts believe that blocking Russia’s access to their territory could, to some extent, be considered a pretext for declaring war. Amid the standoff between Russia and NATO, Warsaw and Vilnius have recently held military exercises in the strategic area, as Western media and officials speculate that Russia could target the area in the event of a full-scale conflict.
Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to attack the alliance, with President Vladimir Putin insisting it has “no geopolitical, economic or military interest” in doing so. “Russia will do everything to prevent a global conflict, but at the same time we will not allow anyone to threaten us,” Putin said in a speech at the Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square.