Germany just took another step towards provoking a horrible war with Russia as it moved more troops into the Baltic States of Estonia and Lithuania:
Three weeks after the "largest US military deployment into Eastern Europe since the cold war", consisting of thousands of tanks and troops under a planned NATO operation to "reassure the alliance’s Eastern European allies", on Tuesday Germany started the deployment of tanks to Lithuania as part of the same NATO mission meant to "bolster confidence" in the face of what NATO member states call "Russian aggression."
Germany is one of the countries that agreed to provide troops and weapons for the NATO mission, which involves deploying four battalions in Poland and the three Baltic states.
According to Reuters, the German army command said it was sending about 200 vehicles, including 30 tanks, by train to Lithuania along with 450 troops, the first of whom arrived last week. The transports would continue until late February. Seven decades after the end of World War Two, the movement of German troops to eastern Europe, even on a NATO mission, remains a sensitive issue both in Germany and the region. (source)
I did an extensive piece on this before (reprinted below). In short, the Baltic States have always been a hot point of contention between Germany and Russia as both empires have laid claim to them going back to Medieval times. The tensions of old never died away- they just changed form but kept their substance.
Relations right now between Germany and Russia are bad to the point of an impending war. All that needs for a war to start is the right trigger, and as I noted last year, a major NATO general said that a conflict between Germany and Russia in the Baltic States could be all that is needed to start such a war.
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