Hunting in Latviija It reminds me of the old fellas I used to go shooting with in a Latvian small bore gun club, just that back in the day, when they were much younger, they were hunting Russkis on the Eastern Front from Lenningrad to Kurzeme and beyond.
Latvia is beautiful. I have a friend there that I was going to try to visit this summer. Probably won't make it because I'm pretty preoccupied here and reluctant to travel.
Unlike Ukraine, Latvija is in NATO...There is a significant Russian minority in Latvija: few if any have volunteered to fight in Ukraine against Ukrainians.
I knew a gal, back about 40-ish years ago, whose parents emigrated from Latvia. Utterly gorgeous....blonde hair, blue eyes, figure that could stop a train dead in its tracks! And she never realized just how beautiful she was! We dated a few times, but with my ship going out to sea all the time, making a serious relationship of it was difficult, to say the least!
I'm afraid that NATO is a hollow shell, one hard blow and it would shatter like glass. Gone are the days when divisions of armor and infantry stood guard against a Soviet invasion. Once our planes filled the skies, but no more. We are dangerously short of ammunition of every type and could only match the Russians round for round for a few days. Thank GOD that the Russians have their hands full in Ukraine, otherwise...
Putin and his ragtag army of reluctant conscripts, jail birds released from Russian prisons, private military company mercenaries, and ethnic minorities who would rather cut Muscovite throats than Ukrainian one's, have made a dog's breakfast of their invasion of Ukraine...Ukraine is holding its own with Western support, without the West waging total war on Russia. NATO is doing a creditable job of supporting a proxy member of the Alliance without putting boots on the ground itself. Russia is putting into the battlefield reconditioned tanks from the 1970's (and older). I think it is Russia that is the one having sustainment issues. The insubordinate Wagner Group mutiny won't be the last one that Putin will have to deal with.
