Senior NATO official: Baltic States could be "occupied in a couple of days" by Russia

Riga, Latvia

As I've remarked in this space before, many misguided people in Mrs. Marathon Pundit's native country of Latvia view President Obama as a hero because he sent a few troops to the Baltic States.

This story should wake them up.

From the Scotsman:

A senior NATO general has warned Russia could occupy the Baltic states in two days and the west would be unable to do anything to stop it from happening.

Czech General Petr Pavel, soon to become head of NATO's military committee, one of the alliance's most important bodies, added that steps taken to face the threat posed by Russia so far had been "embarrassingly ineffective".

His warning comes amid a growing climate of insecurity in the Baltic region and central Europe. The three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, have all reported increases in Russian military activity near their borders, skies and waters. They now plan to make a formal request for Nato to station thousands of troops in the region on a permanent basis as a statement of the alliance;s commitment to their territorial defence.

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"From a technical point of view, if I consider how many forces Russia is able to deploy in the Baltics when compared to the size of the Baltic countries and the density of their forces it means that they could really be occupied in a couple of days," General Pavel said.

Vladimir Putin knows that he'll never see a weaker president than Obama in his lifetime. Will he take advantage of this historic opportunity offered by Obama?