The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s collective defense principle wouldn’t necessarily trigger an immediate armed response in the event of a “small attack” by Russia against a member like Estonia, Admiral Rob Bauer, former Chair of the NATO Military Committee, told the newspaper Die Welt in a June 23 interview. Bauer explained that a small Russian operation that does not threaten a member’s “overall territorial integrity” would leave “time for consultations” to weigh the question: “Do we want to start a war or not?”
Bauer also argued that “Putin doesn’t see NATO as an immediate threat,” pointing to Russia’s muted response to Finland joining the alliance and the largely rhetorical nature of the Kremlin’s nuclear threats.
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I would rather say it already began in 2014 and has been escalating since 2022.
Addition:
I don’t understand the downvote here. Just to explain what I mean by escalation two examples of today from Ukraine where a Russian missile hit a passenger train, and another missile destroyed a residential building. Something like these, multiplied by the millions … [Warning: the two linked videos may disturb some users.]
What i meant by this is that this is how NATO becomes worthless. They will slowly incrementally weaken the rules so that NATO members arent forced to actually respond to invasions.