Countries on NATO’s eastern flank believe Vladimir Putin wants to “risk everything” in a desperate effort to disrupt the current trend
Latvia’s secret services say they have detected “indications that Russia is preparing military provocations against the Baltic countries or Poland” in an attempt to test the cohesion of the Western military alliance.
Another NATO member country, according to a high-level political source cited by The Guardian, guarantees that it is “collecting information” that suggests that the Russian president is “planning something against the Baltic States”, in what could be an attempt to test US support for some smaller countries in the alliance.
The two countries on NATO’s eastern flank speak of a desperate effort by Vladimir Putin to “risk everything” and suspect he may do so by targeting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
This at a time when the Kremlin is facing difficulties on the ground and remains under pressure from Ukraine’s campaign of long-range attacks.
Despite suspicions in the West, Latvia claims that a possible Russian offensive on one of these NATO members would not constitute a large-scale attack, and the country does not have the capacity to open a second front.
According to the Latvian secret services, Russia is considering “hybrid attacks, such as missiles, drones or other types of actions aimed at sending a signal: stop supporting Ukraine, or you will have your own problems”.
The Russian affairs expert at think tank Chatham House’s Keir Giles warns that “we must not wait for Russia to lose passively”. “Moscow will look for ways to disrupt the current trend, through a horizontal escalation [alargando o conflito a outros países] or acting elsewhere”, he emphasizes.
