Rome, 27 March 2024 – Biden who calls “butcher” Putin; a nagging suspicion about a Polish general; new American promises to guarantee the defense of all member countries of the Alliance, starting from the Baltics. Now more than ever, the Cold War drafts are multiplying. Yesterday’s most sensitive news concerns a Polish three-star general – Jaroslaw Gromadzinski – a ‘hound’ who shaped the 18th mechanized division, called ‘the iron division’ and later served as deputy commander of the international assistance team to Ukraine in Wiesbaden, Germany, where, alongside the American military, he was responsible for training of Ukrainian soldiers until June 2023. It was then that, as the first officer of the East, he was appointed commander of the Eurocorpsa multinational EU force at Army Corps level founded in 1992: it includes units from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Yesterday the general was urgently recalled home and replaced in command due to the opening “of an investigation by Polish military counterintelligence – informs a note from the Ministry of Defense in Warsaw – which requested a verification of the security clearance in relation to obtaining new information on the officer”. That is? “The rumors – observes the Polish political scientist Jaroslav Wolski to Gazeta Wiadomosci – talk about falsified reports on the combat readiness of the 18th divisionwhich Gromadzinski commanded”. Of course, it’s a low blow, and who knows if the ‘kompromat’ (dossiers with compromising materials) gracefully put around by the Russian services have anything to do with it. The climate, after all, is what it is.
Joe Bidenspeaking in North Carolina, said it’s time to “finally make sure we protect Ukraine from that butcher Putin”, a definition that conveys the idea even if it is undiplomatic and follows the example of last month’s “crazy son of…”. Electoral campaign? Not only that. “This administration – stated yesterday the deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh – has said over and over again that we will defend every inch of NATO.”
There have always been countries in the crosshairs the Balts and in particular there is Estonia, which has a 25% Russian population. New clouds gathered at the beginning of January when Putin said that what was happening in the Baltic countries threatened Russian national security. A leitmotif already chanted in Donbass and we saw how it ended. “What is happening in Latvia and the other Baltic republics, where Russian citizens are being expelled – said Putin – worries us: it is a question relating to our national security”. From note that from December to February the Estonian secret service arrested eleven suspected Russian agents engaged in ‘hybrid’ activities: dissemination of false information, installation of equipment to jam GPS signals, cyber attacks and various types of intimidation, such as vandalization of some ‘anti-Russian’ cars, including that of Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets.
NATOthat has three brigades in the Baltics and in the area it has been strengthened with the entry of Finland and Sweden, it is well aware of Russian aims and the Baltic countries know it, having signed a memorandum on 19 January to create a ‘Baltic defense line’ with thousands of bunkers on the borders with Russia and Belarus. The Americans have just given 228 million dollars in this regard: following the 225 million of the previous year. Because freedom costs and costs dearly.
