By early September, the Free World's response to Russia's assault on Ukraine appeared impotent. Economic sanctions and declarations that Russia's actions were illegal did nothing to alter the status quo. Russian forces poured into Ukraine-cementing their hold on Crimea while making additional inroads in eastern Ukraine. This troubled the allies that once fell under the domination of the Soviet Union. Led by Vladimir Putin, Russia has repeatedly assaulted nearby nations. This was through cyber attacks, as in Estonia in 2007, which Russia blamed on patriots it could not control. It was military, as in the case of the assault on Georgia in 2008. And it is happening in Ukraine-where Russian forces seized Crimea and pro-Russian "separatists" are supposedly acting on their own in the east. Other nations along Russia's periphery were legitimately concerned they could be next, so President Obama on Sept. 3 laid out America's commitment to the Baltic NATO states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the clearest possible terms. "The defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London," Obama said in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
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