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Estonia’s city at the ‘end of the free world’ stares across a frozen border at Russia (www.politico.eu)

submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemm.ee to c/world@lemmy.world

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Summary

Narva, Estonia’s third-largest city on the Russian border, faces ongoing provocations from Moscow, including GPS jamming, drone incursions, and propaganda.

With a 96% Russian-speaking population and historical ties to Russia, concerns grow that the Kremlin may exploit ethnic divisions to justify aggression, as seen in Ukraine.

Estonia, a NATO member, has increased defense spending to 3.7% of GDP and plans border upgrades, but doubts remain over NATO’s readiness.

Local tensions persist, with propaganda battles, strained cross-border relations, and recruitment challenges among Narva’s Russian-speaking population.

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[-] Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

For context, 3.7% of their GDP is like $1.5B USD. That's a bit of a joke

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 77 points 2 months ago

They’re doing the best they can with what they have. Also, Estonia tends to specialize in counterintelligence and cybersecurity these days. And specialization is one of the intended fringe benefits of NATO, in that it allows smaller countries to fill more niche capabilities like that, and act as force multipliers for larger members.

[-] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 53 points 2 months ago

Hardly a joke considering that they have a population of 1.4m. That’s a medium-sized city…

[-] ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world 41 points 2 months ago

Given that NATO mandates 2% GDP on defence, they're pulling their weight. Estonia is not a large country, so $1.5B goes a lot further there than in larger nations.

[-] Maxy 24 points 2 months ago

[removed by mod]

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 8 points 2 months ago

The Baltic States will probably need to militarise their entire societies along Israeli/Singaporean lines: all adults (with narrow exceptions) are in the military, have sidearms and can be mobilised at short notice.

[-] lime@feddit.nu 9 points 2 months ago

most of northern europe already does that, don't know if it also applies to the baltics but i would not be surprised

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 9 points 2 months ago

Sweden only conscripts a small proportion of suitable people, to the point that if you don’t want to serve, the only thing stopping you from saying no is whatever social pressure you may feel from your peers, as they’ll just move on to the next candidate and have no problem filling places. Not sure how Finland is, but IIRC, they shut down conscription after the fall of the USSR and only reestablished it a decade or so ago, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still a piecemeal system as in Sweden

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Isn't Finland the country where after you do your mandatory service, you must keep your rifle at home and in good working order? I think they have regular checks to make sure everyone has their rifle ready. Can you imagine being in an army trying to invade a country where almost every house has at least one full auto capable rifle and the training to use it well?

I don't like the idea of forced military service but I have to admit it's made them nothing to fuck with.

Also they do have a provision to take back your rifle if you're dealing with mental health issues.

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 5 points 2 months ago

I believe so, though I think that’s the case for Switzerland as well. There everyone does some military service every year, and where possible, in whatever their day job is. (One example is that the military service of civil engineers building bridges and tunnels is to implement ways of quickly destroying them with explosives in the event of invasion.)

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I had heard about the bridges and tunnels being rigged and I think that's so smart, especially for the terrain. I almost mentioned it but I wasn't sure if that was Finland or not. I really need to better educate myself on the differences of countries in that part of the world and the Nordic countries to the north.

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

No. No service weapons at home in Finland (but a lot of hunting weapons per capita). And conscription wasn't shut down as per the previous commenter.

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I wonder which country I'm thinking of. It's embarrassing but all of northeast Europe (with the exception of Russia) is kinda interchangeable in my mind. No offense meant, I just have a annoyingly stubborn blind spot in my knowledge there.

[-] Deway@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

You're thinking of Switzerland. Which is not really in Northern Europe

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Thank you! Like I said I've got this damn stubborn blind spot about the geography and differences in those parts of Europe. Norway is the long one that's to the west right?

I'm only half kidding here.

this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024

218 points (100.0% liked)

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