The Russians Are Coming: Lithuania’s Operation Lightning Strike

Since Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula and the start of conflict in eastern Ukraine in spring 2014, the small Baltic state of Lithuania has been anxiously eyeing Moscow. Some in the capital of Vilnius believe that the country might fall prey to a Ukraine-style military incursion, orchestrated by Russia. Lithuania, a former Soviet satellite, shares a border with the heavily militarized Russian exclave of Kaliningrad — which houses Russia’s Baltic fleet and has been flooded with arms and personnel i