Putin’s Ukraine Crisis Is Fueling Baltics Tensions, Estonia Says
By and- Defense Minister says regional turbulence is worst in 30 years
- NATO member bordering Russia plans to boost defense spending
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s standoff with the West over Ukraine is also triggering the strongest rise in tensions in the Baltic states since the Soviet Union collapsed three decades ago, according to Estonia’s defense minister.
“During the past 30 years, we haven’t seen such turbulent times or situations in our neighborhood,” Kalle Laanet said in an interview on Tuesday. “The Baltic states will be the next ones to be under pressure,” he said, without elaborating on potential threats.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization member state shares a border with Russia and was ruled from Moscow along with its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Latvia for decades until the Soviet Union’s demise. Relations since then have been repeatedly marked by disputes, including over the status of Russian-speaking minorities in the three republics, and the Baltic region has been a focus of NATO security concerns since Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and backing for separatists in Ukraine.
Laanet, a former interior minister, said Russia’s build-up of troops on the Ukrainian border was “like fog,” with little clarity on its intentions. U.S. President Joe Biden warned Putin against any attack on Ukraine during a two-hour video conference Tuesday that came after American intelligence shared with European allies showed Russia amassing as many as 175,000 troops for a possible invasion early in 2022.
Ongoing pressure from Russia’s ally Belarus, which has allowed thousands of migrants mostly from the Middle East to try to breach the border with the European Union, has also raised alarm in the region, Laanet said.
Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million, will boost defense spending to 2.32% of gross domestic product next year from this year’s plan of 2.29% of GDP and should increase it even more in response to the “quite turbulent” security situation, he said.
NATO and EU allies must also demonstrate readiness to respond quickly because “Russia likes to test us,” Laanet said. “We need more cooperation around the Baltic Sea.”
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