JOBS Journal on Baltic Security 2382-9230 2382-9222 BDC 10.2478_JOBS-2021-0004 Research Article Should Russian Military Leaders Opt for Tactical Escalation in the Baltic States and Kaliningrad? Pudāns Kaspars kaspars.pudans@me.com ∗ Col. Kaspars Pudāns, Armed Forces of Latvia, Latvia ∗Corresponding author. 7 2 5 14 13 12 2021 13 12 2021 13 08 2021 01 10 2021 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License 2021 Col. Kaspars Pudāns This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Russia once again pushes its way to emerge as a major power in the international order after losing this status in the modern ‘time of troubles’ in the 1990s. Its political and military strategic leaders demonstrated willingness to employ all instruments of power as means of escalation to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, tactical military commanders are the ones in direct control of military escalation means and therefore their motivations, agility and rationality are also important factor in the Russian escalation processes towards the West. This research will look at these processes through lenses of game and decision-making theories. Keywords Baltic Russia Escalation