In Russia the issue today is “Poland to place American missiles at Russian border.”
Now while this is a true statement it is in a grey area of truth. Yes missiles are being placed near a Russian border. But they are Patriot missiles and it is the border of Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad is Russia but part of Russia in a strange place.
For those of you who do not know where Kaliningrad is take a look at the map. Kaliningrad is not attached to the main body of the Russian country. Kinda like Alaska and the mainland USA but Kaliningrad is a whole bunch smaller than Alaska. 🙂
Kaliningrad houses the Russian Baltic Fleet at the port of Baltiysk and is Russia’s only European ice-free port. So is it important? Yes! Is it Russia? Yes! Is Poland putting some form of missile within a Hundred Kilometers of it? Yes! Is America involved? Yes! Does it all make sense? No!
What is Poland defending from with a Patriot Missile? The Patriot Missile has a Operational range of 160 kilometres or 99 miles. Also the Patriot Missile system does not have a flawless history. I remember well that Israel was not happy campers at the success rate of the missiles, as Scuds from Iraq still got through. This issue was declared to be happening because the Scud missiles were so poorly built that they had an extremely erratic flight path and thus were very difficult to intercept! I remember that the Patriot Missile tracking software always hit the Scud at the tail end. Thus a Scud still tumbled to earth and exploded…
As usual there is much more to this situation than meets the eye or ear. So we will have to just wait it out and see what comes of this cat and mouse games by America, Poland and Russia!
Windows to Russia!
comments always welcome.