Today’s message to all but pacifists: time for Putin to bomb the hell out of….Estonia
In the midst of all the awful news coming out of the Middle East, where Trump, Hegseth and Company are running amok, unchecked, unchallenged by the Great Power defenders of the Global South, who even deny that they are providing Iran with targeting intelligence let alone military materiel as some residual sense of decency and instinct for self-preservation would dictate, there is a tiny bit of bad news that probably has not come your way yet: that the Baltic States are now allowing Ukrainians to use their territory to send aloft attack drones aimed at St. Petersburg. This shocker from yesterday comes on top of Keir Starmer’s statements in the same time frame urging his fleet to board and take over Russian ‘grey fleet’ tankers in the open seas. Both developments are intended to draw the world’s attention to the only conflict that matters for the EU leadership – the one going on in Ukraine, where they still hope to humiliate Moscow, precipitate regime change and a break-up of the Russian Federation.
This internet platform is not a podcast, and I can speak more freely. Accordingly, I say here that if Putin still has a backbone, which many of you in the Community and further afield are rightly beginning to doubt, as I judge from the Comments section of my interview with Glenn Diesen on Tuesday, then he will react without hesitation and without delay: bomb the hell out of Estonia right now, level Tallinn to the ground after giving the civilian population a few hours advance warning to pack their cars and leave. There is no need to open the Pandora’s box of tactical nuclear weapons. There is no need for showy Oreshniks that strike without doing collateral damage. It is precisely collateral damage that Europe needs to see on its own territory. Artillery, missiles, glide-bombs carrying a ton or more of conventional explosives, and similar will turn Tallinn into a Gaza look-alike in a day or two.
What will NATO do about this? Nothing, absolutely nothing. They are not prepared for war and should be reminded of that fact in the most dramatic way possible if we are not to slip further into a civilization destroying all-out nuclear war by further baby step escalation. The bad boy of Russian political scientists, Sergei Karaganov was saying this to Putin’s face during the November 2024 Valdai Discussion Club gathering. He was very right.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026
Postscript: Latvia’s Ministry of Defense this evening has denied that Latvia and Estonia are participating in the planning and execution of Ukrainian attacks on Russia, saying that talk of their permitting Ukraine a corridor on their territory for drones to travel onwards to Russia is “disinformation.” We shall follow this dispute closely.
I would prefer to see Putin use a Venezuela type operation on Estonia
then parade the leadership of Estonia through the streets of Saint Petersburg.
My feeling is, and has been for a long time, that Trump has been playing a very deceptive game of good cop / bad cop (or Trojan Horse) with Ukraine. The truth may be that he never relented from attempting to destroy Russia, never stopping cooperation with NATO in reality. By pretending to abandon NATO and wanting to close the Ukraine war, he kept Putin from offering more support to Iran.
Now 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 NATO forces are spread out attacking Russia and Iran simultaneously.
As we know, 🇺🇸 is employing AI modelling to determine the paths of least resistance.
And so far China has not provided overt resistance, even though it knows that it is the primary target!
An ultimatum to evacuate from Russia and China’s sphere of influence, may have stopped escalation. Yet it continues unabated, with anticipated simultaneous flashpoints around the world. And false admissions, such as from Israel, to obfuscate.