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Latest Articles about Baltics
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The Black Sea Region: NATO’s Exposed Sector on the Eastern Flank (Part One)
Aspirationally at least, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is transitioning from reassurance measures to a more serious deterrence posture on the Alliance’s “Eastern flank” vis-à-vis Russia. Decisions in this regard will be finalized down to the wire of NATO’s summit in Warsaw (July 8–9).... MORE
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Russian First Guards Tank Army as an Instrument of Hybrid War Against Baltic States
The 1st Guards Tank Army was formed in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War, in 1943. It was disbanded in 1999, but re-established in 2015. As more details about this reborn heavy military unit come to light, worries increase about the threat it... MORE
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Tallinn–Helsinki Railroad Tunnel Could Transform Geopolitics of Northern Europe
In mid-June, the European Union pledged to provide one million euros ($1.13 million) to finance a preliminary study on the feasibility of constructing a railway tunnel between Tallinn and Helsinki, under the Gulf of Finland (ERR, June 15). The decision has attracted widespread attention to... MORE
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East-West Standoff in Europe Becoming Progressively Institutionalized
While continuing to exchange barbs, the West and Russia are building a more institutionalized pattern of standoff in Europe that involves increasingly predictable tit-for-tat mirrored actions. Both sides profess their actions to be purely defensive, but these are increasingly robust defenses. The North Atlantic Treaty... MORE
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Inside Latvia’s New State Defense Concept: Riga Declares Its Military Ambitions Ahead of NATO Summit
Latvia’s new State Defense Concept, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers this week (May 24), is an ambitious declaration for a stronger defense buildup. At the same time, it represents a kind of “wish list” just ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) approaching... MORE
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Strange Bedfellows: Latvian Nationalists and Ethnic Russians Both Want to Block Entrance of More Russians
It has often been remarked that politics can make strange bedfellows, bringing together groups that one could not imagine agreeing on anything. That is what has been happening in Latvia, where Latvian nationalists and ethnic-Russian residents of that Baltic country—for quite different reasons—both support restricting... MORE
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Putin Commits to Countering New Strategic ‘Threat’ to Russia
The ceremony of opening the United States’ missile defense base in Deveselu, Romania, last week (Thursday, May 12), was greeted by a barrage of condemnation and criticism from Russian officials (see EDM, May 12). The next day, President Vladimir Putin turned these denouncements into state... MORE
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The Baltic Sea Region: A New ‘Powder Keg?’
During the first half of this month (May 2–19), Estonia is hosting one of the largest military exercises in its post-Soviet history—“Spring Storm 2016” (Delfi, May 2). These war games are being carried out in the three Estonian counties that border Russia: Tartu, Põlva and... MORE
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Russian Jets Fly Close to US Ship and Recon Aircraft Over Baltic Sea
Last week (April 12), two Russian Su-24 bombers closely overflew the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook, in the Baltic Sea, in international airspace. The incident happened relatively close to the Baltiysk naval base, in the Kaliningrad enclave. Two days later, an Su-27 fighter intercepted a... MORE
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Latvia Strives to Modernize Its Command and Control
In order to boost the role of the National Guard within the national defense system and to continue to develop its structures, Latvia’s Defense Minister Raimonds Bergmanis recently ordered the commander of the National Armed Forces, Raimonds Graube, to transform the current National Guard regional... MORE