{"id":26509,"date":"2014-12-13T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-13T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2014\/12\/13\/baltics-up-defense-spending-as-russia-buzzes-borders\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:17:51","slug":"baltics-up-defense-spending-as-russia-buzzes-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2014\/12\/13\/baltics-up-defense-spending-as-russia-buzzes-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltics Up Defense Spending As Russia Buzzes Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"character dateline\">RIGA, Latvia \u2013 <\/span>Russia&#8217;s meddling in Ukraine has delivered a wake-up call on defense spending to small Baltic states that spent half a century under Soviet occupation and now fear the Kremlin&#8217;s territorial ambitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are on heightened alert as Russian military planes and warships skirt their airspace and sea borders on a daily basis in what they call &#8220;unprecedented&#8221; Russian activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NATO said its Baltic air patrol intercepted more than 30 Russian aircraft on Monday alone over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That same day Lithuania put its military on higher alert after 22 Russian warships were spotted in the Baltic Sea, including a heavily-armed corvette within five kilometres (three miles) of Latvia&#8217;s sea border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The current security situation will stay with us for a long period of time. This is not just bad weather, this is climate change,&#8221; Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Baltics escaped Soviet clutches and regained their independence in 1991, before joining the European Union and NATO in 2004 to cement their Western orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All three have welcomed assurances from their NATO allies that any aggression against them will be regarded as an attack on the Atlantic defense alliance as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;NATO&#8217;s presence in the Baltic region must continue and increase,&#8221; Roivas stressed this week in the US, where he was meeting defense companies about future deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baltic forces on their own stand no chance of seeing off a full-scale Russian attack for long. But their ability to fend off Moscow until NATO could scramble a broader response is decisive, analysts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If the Baltic states are attacked, there will be a certain response time before NATO allies react,&#8221; Lithuanian defense analyst Aleksandras Matonis told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The first wave of aggression must be met and repelled by (Baltic) countries using their own defense capacities.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Baltics have thus made big-ticket military purchases and upped their defense budgets since Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and offered support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tanks, Missiles, Combat Vehicles<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estonian Defence Minister Sven Mikser on Tuesday sealed the biggest military procurement in his country&#8217;s history, worth 138 million euros ($171 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The deal sees the nation of 1.3 million people buy 44 CV90 combat vehicles and six Leopard tanks from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It comes a month after Mikser inked a contract worth 40 million euros with the US to buy 40 Stinger missile systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estonia also has an order for self-propelled guns in the works, he told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Latvia meanwhile bought 123 combat vehicles for 48 million euros from Britain in August and in November agreed to a four-million-euro deal with Norway for 800 Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons, plus 100 trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lithuania for its part bought a 34-million-euro GROM air defense system from Poland in September and a month later said it would spend $20 million (16 million euros) on a fresh supply of Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That brings the total Baltic military spending on hardware to 300 million euros in six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Politicians have &#8220;significantly changed&#8221; their defense spending rhetoric because of Russia&#8217;s aggression in Ukraine, defense expert Kristine Rudzite-Stejskala wrote in a report for the Latvian Institute for International Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estonia \u2014 one of only a handful NATO members that actually meet the grouping&#8217;s two-percent-of-GDP rule \u2014 plans to raise its defense budget to 2.05 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lithuania plans to raise its budget next year to 1.1 percent from 0.89, while Latvia intends no less than one percent after its current 0.91 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;For years, defense had been underfunded. Russian actions in Ukraine have increased public support for the increase,&#8221; Lithuanian Defence Minister Juozas Olekas told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the amount the Baltics can spend on defense \u2014 1.2 billion euros combined in 2014 \u2014 pales in comparison to Russia&#8217;s 60 billion euros, or 3.4 percent of GDP. \u25a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RIGA, Latvia  \u2013 Russia&#8217;s meddling in Ukraine has delivered a wake-up call on defense spending to small Baltic states 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