The thing that causes a crisis in Kaliningrad is the location of that city and naval base. When the Soviet Union was gone in 1992 Russia lost all other Baltic bases than Kaliningrad. Another naval base at the Baltic Sea is at St. Petersburg. The naval base is located at the fornix of the Gulf of Finland and the route to that base is very narrow. The distance between Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
And Tallinn the capital of Estonia is about 70 kilometers. And that means the troops can close that sea route quite easily by using missiles and long-range torpedoes. Another thing is that the reconnaissance systems like hydrophones and underwater cameras can observe ships and submarines when they try to go to the open sea.
The location of Kaliningrad is on the straight coast of the Baltic sea. The naval base cannot be closed so easily. And ships and submarines can slip to the open sea easier than from St. Petersburg. The location makes Kaliningrad a more suitable military base than St. Petersburg. But the problem is that Kaliningrad is like an island. The remote part of Russia. And all cargo between the Russian mainland and Kaliningrad is going through Lithuania.
The location of Kaliningrad makes it possible that the missiles and aircraft in that area can strike very fast against NATO troops in Central Europe.
During that period those cargos are under observation of NATO intelligence. Another way to transport equipment from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad is to use cargo airplanes or sea routes. Those routes are more expensive than using railroads. But secrecy and security are better guaranteed in sea cargo.
The Kaliningrad base can cause problems in the future. The reason for that is that the naval base is extremely important to Russia when it guards its interest in the Baltic Sea. We can see that there is a risk that the situation that launched the war in Ukraine can repeat in Kaliningrad. At the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis was the role of Sevastopol naval base at Krim peninsula.
Sevastopol is one of the key elements to control the Black Sea and the oil and gas routes to Europe. This is the reason, why Russians supported the separatists of Krim and wanted to connect that area to Russia. The Kaliningrad naval base plays a similar role in the Baltic Sea. It allows service and combat ships along with recon units can break to the sea and operate on the coast of Denmark and Germany. That base allows the natural point for recon airplanes and ships. They are traveling across the Baltic coast from Kaliningrad to St. Petersburg.
Image 1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanuchka-class_corvette
Image 2) Google maps
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