Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up the Kremlin’s efforts to create the information conditions for a future escalation against the Baltic states, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
“Russian President Vladimir Putin notably amplified a longstanding Kremlin effort to set information conditions for future escalations against the Baltic countries, likely as part of his wider effort to weaken NATO,” the ISW writes in its daily assessment of the Russian offensive campaign.
Putin claimed on Tuesday that Latvia and other Baltic states are “throwing [ethnic] Russian people” out of their countries and that this situation “directly affects [Russia’s] security.”
He was most likely referring to changes in Latvia’s immigration law, stipulating that Russian citizens who wish to obtain or renew a permanent residence permit in the country would need to pass the Latvian language exam.
In December, the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs stated that the country would deport about 1,200 Russian citizens who failed to apply for a new residence permit by the deadline.
“Putin has long employed an expansive definition of Russia’s sovereignty and trivialized the sovereignty of former Soviet republics, and Russia has long claimed that it has the right to protect its ‘compatriots abroad’, including ethnic Russians and Russian speakers beyond Russia’s borders,” ISW said.
“ISW has not observed any indication that a Russian attack against the Baltics is imminent or likely, but Putin may be setting information conditions for future aggressive Russian actions abroad under the pretext of protecting its ‘compatriots’,” it added.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
