Tallinn, Estonia — At the time of the Republican convention, the Baltic states became an issue in the presidential campaign. This was a surprise. No one was more surprised than people here in the Baltics. And no one was more concerned.
On the third day of the convention, Donald Trump gave an interview to the New York Times. One of the reporters questioning him, David E. Sanger, had just returned from the Baltics. He told Trump that people in the region were on edge about a “new Russian activism”: Vladimir Putin’s forces were harassing these states with military exercises, etc. Submarines were lurking off coasts; bombers were buzzing. If Trump were president, and Russia invaded the Baltics, would he come to their aid? Trump said, “I don’t want to tell you what I’d do, because I don’t want Putin to know what I’d do.”
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