No warning. No consultation. Not even a cursory explanation, from the Pentagon or from American officials in Europe. At the Lennart Meri Conference in Tallinn this weekend, a big security shindig, I watched an excruciating performance by a supposedly senior US official, Thomas DiNanno, who merely blathered when asked about the move. I think he said that the presentation could have been better (note to the organisers: next year can we please have simultaneous translation from Trump-speak into English?). Asked flatly by a senior Latvian politician, Artis Pabriks, whether the US would defend its Baltic allies if Russia attacked them, DiNanno declined to give a straight “yes”. Even our poker-faced Estonian hosts looked dismayed.
Edward Lucas , dwardlucas.substack.com