For countries in the easternmost flank of Europe, Russia is a current and impending threat – and in the event that Moscow decides to test the defensive determination of NATO again in the event that Moscow decides.
Since Russia strengthens its military presence in the region and the US commitment to the fluctuations in the European defense package and its members run to build defense.
The countries bring back conscription, acquire more weapons and strengthen their limits. Finland has accelerated the construction of a 200 km fence and the increase in surveillance and patrols.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania build a Baltic line of defense from concrete bunkers and tank trenches along a 600 mile border with Russia and its allied Belarus-most of the most exposed part of the eastern border of NATO.
Lithuania is particularly susceptible. It borders south on the Russian exclavations of Kaliningrad and the Suwalki gap – the only territory that connects the Baltic states with the rest of the NATO.
Poland builds defenses worth 2.3 billion EUR to form an “east sign” – the biggest attempt to strengthen the eastern border of the country since 1945.
In the east, Ukraine shows the destruction that penetrates into Russia.
The result there will determine what Moscow is doing next, warns ex-Nato Head Anders Fogh Rasmussen. “If Putin is successful in Ukraine, he won’t stop here.”
