Estabilished in 2019, The Baltic Security Foundation (BSF) promotes the security and defense of the Baltic Sea region.
The Foundation is a result of the Baltic Security Strategy Project (2017-2019) that gathered experts on defence, societal security and economic security to assess the shared challenges for the Baltic States and recommend solutions.
BSF gathers Baltic experts and security experts from the region and beyond. It provides a platform for discussion and research, expert networking, expert mobility, and promotes finding and advocating for solutions that lead to a stronger regional security in military and other areas.
Olevs Nikers, President
Senior analyst at the Jamestown Foundation. Former chief expert at the Ministry of Defense of Latvia (2001-2019).
Otto Tabuns, Director
Foreign and security policy expert for 10 years. Co-host of the “Latvia Weekly” political news program.
Russia will invade Ukraine. It is no longer a matter of if, but when. Some pundits have been quick to point out that Russia already invaded Ukraine in 2014 and has been an occupier since then. This is true, but short of inventing some other barbarically cumbersome turn of phrase or vague milquetoast nonsense that fails to capture the urgency of the situation, an invasion is perhaps the best word available to describe what is on the horizon.
From the Baltics, to Poland, to Ukraine, and even outer space, Russia has recently been testing Western resolve on numerous fronts. Perhaps most pressing of the myriad issues in recent news are the recent Russian military buildup around Ukraine and Belarus’ exploitation (with at least tacit Russian support) of migrants from the Middle East to wage hybrid war on Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. Moving forward, how the West responds to these issues will play a major role in Russia’s course of action.
Earlier this month, the Estonian Center for Defense Investment (ECDI) announced the purchase of Blue Spear 5G SSM land-to-sea missile systems from Israel. With a maximum range of 290 kilometers (approximately 180.2 miles), the Blue Spear missile system can reach targets across both the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, and can also be used to strike both moving and stationary targets at sea in all weather conditions, day or night.
For international observers, military exercises are a key litmus test of a country’s strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, they reflect that country’s view to the strategies of its supposed opponents. In that sense, this year’s Zapad (“West”) exercises conducted in Russia and Belarus were no different. They revealed Russia’s perceptions of the way the NATO will fight, given the still relatively unlikely event of war between the two. Likewise, the exercises remained highly scripted as in the past, and the scenarios involved were largely the same.
