Front Line And Powder Keg Of The New Cold War: The Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Countries, And Kaliningrad

The Baltic Sea constitutes a region surrounded by the coastal countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Non-coastal countries of Belarus, Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia and Ukraine are neighbors to this region. Three of the Baltic Sea Region countries, namely Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are considered as the Baltic countries or the Baltic states. Kaliningrad Oblast is an exclave of the Russian Federation located on the coast of the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad, before the Second World War, was the East Prussian provincial capital of Konigsberg and became part of the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War.