News   Apr 23, 2024
Queen's Cross Food Hall Brings Global Flavours to Toronto Eaton Centre
 235     0 
News   Apr 23, 2024
News Roundup for April 23, 2024
 332     0 
News   Apr 23, 2024
Shimmy
 565     0 

2022/24 Russian-Ukrainian War

Towered said:
I do sometimes wonder about the future of Kaliningrad. I remember reading that there were conversations in the 90's about Germany buying it back from Russia when their economy was in the doldrums, but I'm not sure how serious that ever was (especially given how the entire native German population had been expelled decades earlier and replaced with ethnic Russians). I imagine Russia would be loathe to give up such a strategically important parcel, especially now that it's relations with the EU are at an all time low.
Click to expand...

If Sweden does join NATO they may want to. That would leave Kaliningrad surrounded on all sides by NATO countries. I doubt Russia would enjoy that very much.
 
Towered said:
I do sometimes wonder about the future of Kaliningrad. I remember reading that there were conversations in the 90's about Germany buying it back from Russia when their economy was in the doldrums, but I'm not sure how serious that ever was (especially given how the entire native German population had been expelled decades earlier and replaced with ethnic Russians). I imagine Russia would be loathe to give up such a strategically important parcel, especially now that it's relations with the EU are at an all time low.
Click to expand...

I would be hesitant to go into shifting borders - it's a can of worms given the serious amount of border adjustments from the Second World War, and it detracts from the issue - which is the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is important not to tack old grievances onto this.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I would be hesitant to go into shifting borders - it's a can of worms given the serious amount of border adjustments from the Second World War, and it detracts from the issue - which is the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is important not to tack old grievances onto this.

AoD
Click to expand...
I agree that shifting borders in Europe is not a good idea BUT it is not unreasonable to point out to Russia that if their borders can be extended to include parts of Ukraine then they can also be shrunk to exclude land obtained fairly recently from Finland, Lithuania etc etc.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
I would be hesitant to go into shifting borders - it's a can of worms given the serious amount of border adjustments from the Second World War, and it detracts from the issue - which is the territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is important not to tack old grievances onto this.

AoD
Click to expand...

Meh, the population of the entire Oblast is under 1M. Most of the area is rural/natural/

I think it might make an excellent EU International Park - 15000km of nature accessible to all EU citizens.

;)
 
Towered said:
I do sometimes wonder about the future of Kaliningrad. I remember reading that there were conversations in the 90's about Germany buying it back from Russia when their economy was in the doldrums
Click to expand...
It would make more sense for Poland to take it. Kalinigrad is no where near Germany.

kaliningrad.jpeg


I forget sometimes how big Germany was before its 1914-1945 misadventures. You can see the city of Kaliningrad below, under its original name Königsberg.

German_Empire_1000.jpg


Imagine how different the map would have looked today if the Germans gave peace a chance in 1914.
 
Admiral Beez said:
It would make more sense for Poland to take it. Kalinigrad is no where near Germany.

kaliningrad.jpeg


I forget sometimes how big Germany was before its 1914-1945 misadventures. You can see the city of Kaliningrad below, under its original name Königsberg.

German_Empire_1000.jpg


Imagine how different the map would have looked today if the Germans gave peace a chance in 1914.
Click to expand...

I agree that it likely wouldn't make much sense to return it to Germany at this point, as I doubt that after 80 years that there's any emotional attachment left to it. The demographic that was directly affected by the forced resettlement is long gone, and I doubt the generations of their offspring give a damn about it. Splitting up the oblast between Poland and Lithuania would make geographical sense, but I doubt that either country would be enthusiastic about adopting a million Russians into their societies. So, there's no simple solution with that rump - it will just have to go on and fester as an unfortunate compromise that the Allies made with the Soviets back in '45...
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top