Leipzig-Halle Airport (EDDP) - Riga (EVRA) Kalitta Air, Boeing 747-200F
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 7:48 pmAt first, this flight made not much sense, only around 1.000 km and a 747 but, the american Kalitta Air has some military contracts. One Problem of NATO is the transport of large and heavy equipment from Germany to the baltic states, because after the border between Germany and Poland over Lithuania, Latvia to Estonia the are a lot of bridges not fitted for heavy transports over 10 ts and the roads can not handle such weights. There is no railroad-network between Germany and Riga for example. I am often underway between Berlin and Riga and the result for a question with Deutsche Bahn AG (german railroad) was ... Yes you can take the train to Minsk (Belarus) and from here you can take a train to Riga. Small problem: you need a visa for Belarus... and you are 3 days underway. With Bus for example one day and by air 1 hour 30 min!
There was a plan building a new fast railroad from Tallinn over Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw, Berlin to Paris. The plan was from around 2003 but there was no money there for this. Now, the EU in Brüssel and by NATO becoming aware of the strategic importance of this plan and the plan is there, but the EU is not good in managing such projects. In Riga meanwhile the plan becomes reality with a new dzelzceļa stacija (latvian, railway station) but it is not easy. You must know, that the baltic countries as former part of the USSR have the typical broad gauge railway 1760 mm but Poland and the rest of the EU 1435 mm...
Meanwhile the only solution are the ports in the Baltic Sea but the space of the harbours in the Baltic to handle military equipment is limited and the other idea is to fly the material in.
Airport Halle-Leipzig has a military area used for Flights of US troops and german military to fly with military aircraft and from contractors to Bagram, Afghanistan and to Bishkek and Thermes outside in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. But this would be end in near future, because of Russian influence in that area. Riga has an older freight-Terminal not much visible from the public area. It seems that is meanwhile in use again...
We in the Baltic see this situation as Heating of the Cold War 2 that we have at the moment and there are some similarities with the Ukraine. After the downfall of the USSR many ethnic Russians are in the other countries around. Most of them in the Baltic are loyal to the new states like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. But... in the Baltic the governments of these states use more or less a lot of power to harass "their Russians" and this may be prove to be a failure. The EU does nothing against this. It is no wonder because the responsible EU Commissioner is a Latvian nationalist. He was Prime Minister in Latvia and in his time, anti-Russian laws were passed... Some russians in Latvia told... "the Latvians have denunced us to the NATO as their foe´s and the NATO-troops in the Baltic are not as Protection against the Russian Federation but "to protect the Baltic governments for us." Many of them left Latvia working abroad. For a small country with on paper 2.1 Millions of people and in reality something like 1.7... 1.8 the situation is political desired but economically catastrophic when the taxpayers run away.
This looks a bit like in the Ukraine but the there is one point. The Baltic states are member of NATO...
It has become uncomfortable in Latvia...
There was a plan building a new fast railroad from Tallinn over Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw, Berlin to Paris. The plan was from around 2003 but there was no money there for this. Now, the EU in Brüssel and by NATO becoming aware of the strategic importance of this plan and the plan is there, but the EU is not good in managing such projects. In Riga meanwhile the plan becomes reality with a new dzelzceļa stacija (latvian, railway station) but it is not easy. You must know, that the baltic countries as former part of the USSR have the typical broad gauge railway 1760 mm but Poland and the rest of the EU 1435 mm...
Meanwhile the only solution are the ports in the Baltic Sea but the space of the harbours in the Baltic to handle military equipment is limited and the other idea is to fly the material in.
Airport Halle-Leipzig has a military area used for Flights of US troops and german military to fly with military aircraft and from contractors to Bagram, Afghanistan and to Bishkek and Thermes outside in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. But this would be end in near future, because of Russian influence in that area. Riga has an older freight-Terminal not much visible from the public area. It seems that is meanwhile in use again...
We in the Baltic see this situation as Heating of the Cold War 2 that we have at the moment and there are some similarities with the Ukraine. After the downfall of the USSR many ethnic Russians are in the other countries around. Most of them in the Baltic are loyal to the new states like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. But... in the Baltic the governments of these states use more or less a lot of power to harass "their Russians" and this may be prove to be a failure. The EU does nothing against this. It is no wonder because the responsible EU Commissioner is a Latvian nationalist. He was Prime Minister in Latvia and in his time, anti-Russian laws were passed... Some russians in Latvia told... "the Latvians have denunced us to the NATO as their foe´s and the NATO-troops in the Baltic are not as Protection against the Russian Federation but "to protect the Baltic governments for us." Many of them left Latvia working abroad. For a small country with on paper 2.1 Millions of people and in reality something like 1.7... 1.8 the situation is political desired but economically catastrophic when the taxpayers run away.
This looks a bit like in the Ukraine but the there is one point. The Baltic states are member of NATO...
It has become uncomfortable in Latvia...
