Russia is using intimidation in an attempt to force Latvia and the West as a whole to end their support for Ukraine, Commander of the Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) Kaspars Pudāns said when assessing Russia’s recent activities in an interview with Latvian Television’s “Rīta panorāma” programme.
A significant part of Russia’s tactics involves acts of sabotage that are easy to organise, require relatively few resources, but can have a considerable impact, Pudāns said. He also stressed that preparing defences against such hybrid activities is difficult because new methods can constantly be devised.
Asked about the reasons behind US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow and whether it indicates an increased security threat to the Baltic Sea region, the NAF commander said that the United States and Ukraine share intelligence with Latvia, which is used to assess the security situation. According to Pudāns, the available intelligence does not indicate that Russia is concentrating troops near Latvia’s borders.
Mobilisation in Russia is possible, however. Pudāns estimated that it could provide the aggressor state’s military with a relatively large number of personnel, although they would be poorly trained. The NAF commander expects that these troops would primarily be “thrown” into the fighting in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Latvia’s month-long comprehensive national defence exercise “Namejs” begins today. Pudāns said the Latvian Armed Forces seek to learn from experiences of warfare around the world during their exercises, including by adopting new technologies and tactics and focusing more closely on transforming capabilities into practical action.
Pudāns noted that a significant part of the large-scale autumn exercise “Namejs” will take place outside military training areas.
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