It is well known that Putin sees the Baltic states as part of the Russian sphere of influence and there is a constant campaign by elements of Russia to undermine those countries, I'm not going to list it here it's all freely available from multiple sources on Google.
'Specific areas of Ukraine'. Well you cannot deny he invaded the lot to start off with! Only the actions of the Ukrainian forces stopped him from taking over the full country. His attempt to seize Hostomel airport was an attempt to de capitate Ukraine. Those specific areas you mention are all that is available to him after the failure of his military.
I am worried because the rhetoric coming from Washington enables him and does not challenge him.
We did not take a gun to Finland and Sweden and say 'you're joining NATO'. Those countries and all the others in the 'eastward expansion' have done so voluntarily because they recognise the threat. It's easy to critcise those countries but Ukraine was the only one not a NATO member and look what has happened to that even when under the Budapest memorandum in 1994 the Russians were party to a treaty guaranteeing Ukraines security..
An SS28 takes four minutes to get from Russia to the UK, having missiles in France makes no tangible difference, the technology available in the Cuban crisis was not the same.
You must log in or register to see images