Russian military aircraft once again "violated" NATO airspace, but Trump is still pretending not to know.

On the 19th, the Estonian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace without permission on that day and stayed for about 12 minutes. After NATO aircraft were deployed, they "were forced to flee."

The Estonian official statement accused the Russian aircraft of this act as a provocation against Estonia's sovereignty, calling it "completely unacceptable."

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsaknās publicly used vulgar language, saying Russia's actions were "shameless."

After Estonia spoke out, European countries such as Poland and Lithuania, as well as NATO and the European Commission, voiced support for Estonia while also condemning Russia's "atrocities."

Russia quickly responded, but emphasized that its aircraft strictly followed international law, stating that at that time, it was flying from Karelia to an airport in Kaliningrad, passing through the neutral sea and air space over the Baltic Sea, and did not violate the airspace of any country.

In short, this matter is now a case of "each side has its own reason": NATO and the EU insist that the Russian military aircraft's intrusion is Putin's test of Western resolve, so the West "must absolutely not show weakness"; while Russia denies that its military aircraft ever flew into the airspace of NATO countries, neither acknowledging Estonia's current accusation nor the previous drone invasion incident in Poland.

An image of the Russian MiG-31 taken by NATO aircraft

So, when Europe and Russia are in dispute, what attitude the US, the leader of NATO, takes is very important.

On the 20th, Trump also responded to Estonia's allegations, saying he didn't like such things, but the specific details are currently unclear, and these incidents may cause big trouble.

Then there was nothing more. This is not the first time that "Russian aircraft" have violated NATO airspace, but so far, Trump's response to all incidents has remained superficial: he does not make harsh statements against Russia or threaten to take measures, nor does he give the member states an explanation - in short, he just pretends not to hear or see anything.

It is precisely because of Trump's silence that the current situation of European NATO members is very awkward, especially those Eastern European "anti-Russia" countries: they joined NATO because they valued the fact that in the past, NATO under the leadership of the United States could bomb whoever it wanted, dared to expand eastward despite Russia's opposition, and never thought that now, when Russian warplanes actually "came right in front of their faces," the U.S. president would not take it seriously.

Russia is betting that NATO will not start a war

This actually exposes another issue, that although the US and Europe are both members of NATO, their interests do not always align: Europe hopes that these "Russian aircraft intrusion incidents" will revive NATO again, just as the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russia conflict pulled NATO back from the brink of "brain death";

but the US under Trump believes that NATO has become a burden, especially in resolving the Ukraine crisis, Trump wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but Europe repeatedly prevents him from reaching a conciliatory agreement with Putin.

For Russia, Putin seems to have seized the subtle differences between Trump and Europe.

If the "Russian military aircraft intrusion incidents" reported by Poland and Estonia are true, then this is clearly a test of NATO's bottom line by Russia, that is, by constantly increasing pressure to make Europe feel that their support for Ukraine is burning the war to their doorstep.

After all, NATO has already expanded to Russia's doorstep, and if Russia can push it back once, it's considered a rebound.

In other words, since Trump has not yet stood up for these NATO member states, Russia seems to have concluded that Europe has no courage to drag NATO into war with Russia, so naturally, Russia is bold enough to gradually squeeze the strategic space of Europe on the Ukraine issue.

And the actual response of NATO has indeed been as Russia expected. After these "Russian aircraft intrusion incidents," although Poland and Estonia and other member states complained about the infringement of their sovereignty, they did not demand the use of Article 5 of NATO to respond to Russia, but instead activated Article 4 to discuss what to do.

However, in the absence of clear statements from Trump, the final result of the discussions among these European member states is only to strengthen the defense of the eastern wing of NATO.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7552092657871356455/

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