I'll stop calling you Shirley, but I can't believe even Russia would be so epically stupid by stoking a crisis at Norway's Svalbard Islands, thinking Russia can exploit the complicated legal status that includes a large Russian settlement there.
It seems unlikely that Russia would attempt to test NATO’s Article V "all-for-one" provision at Norway’s Svalbard Islands:
For the best part of a century, the biggest threat to the residents of Svalbard was polar bears. Increasingly, it now comes from Russia.
Fears are growing that Moscow could use the sprawling Arctic archipelago — a part of Norway with an unusual legal status — to test NATO militarily amid growing uncertainty over the U.S. commitment to European defense.
NATO absolutely should and would respond. And drawing NATO forces close to Russia’s SSBN bastion seems like an epic level of stupid even for Moscow when prudence right now argues for NATO avoiding a test of Russia's paranoia line there.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
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