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Putin might figure that, since the war in Ukraine cannot be won, seizing the Baltic States would at least give him something to pass off as a huge victory and to pass himself off as a contemporary Alexander Nevsky.
The year was 1939, the season was summer, and things were moving fast. And nowhere good. The Germans, for months, had claimed the Polish government was either aiding, or putting up with, ethnic cleansing of Germans living in Poland. This was more than saber-rattling. The Germans were making territorial demands. And the world was caving. Appeasement was the answer from the West. The Allies hadn't learned their lessons yet.