By Tengo Gogotishvili | 2024-07-31

RIGA -- Power saws are buzzing throughout eastern Latvia, clearing an almost 400km-long stretch of forest and swamp along the borders with Russia and Belarus.

The Latvians are seeking to fortify their border against threats from Moscow.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it became clear that the more reliably the border was closed, the better everyone in Latvia would sleep.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs has gone to check out the construction twice.

"The border will never be ready, because new things and new challenges are emerging all the time," Rinkēvičs said, according to the LSM news site. "It is just a fence; then there will be sensors."

A 'drone wall'

Another technological step to ward off Russia is under way.

Russia's northern neighbors -- including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Poland -- in late May agreed to create a "drone wall."

"This is a completely new thing, a drone wall stretching from Norway to Poland, and the goal is to use drones and other technologies to protect our borders," Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said in May, according to the Defense Post.

"[This] would allow us to protect against provocations from unfriendly countries and to prevent smuggling."

"There are two construction projects at our eastern borders," said Toms Rostoks, director of the Center for Security and Strategic Research at the Latvian National Defence Academy.

"The first one is the construction of a fence in the places which are passable mostly from Belarus ... [where] for many years we have witnessed continuous attempts of breaching into our territory by the migrants from the Middle East," he told Kontur.

"The second project is the Baltic Defense Line, that includes the building of bunkers with stocks of armament and wartime supplies," he said.

The defense line and other planned security systems "will cost around [€300 million] that will be allocated in the coming years," he added.

Latvia budgeted about €90 million to build the fence along the Belarusian border, according to the State Border Guard, Schengen News reported in June.

Construction was scheduled to start in July.

Meanwhile, Latvia had built about 130km of barbed-wire fencing along the 283km-long border with Russia as of June, DPA reported at the time, quoting the State Border Guard.

Latvia has assigned both the National Guard and its regular military to help patrol the border with Russia.

Baltic Defense Line

NATO has recognized the threat, issuing a Summit Declaration on July 10 that spoke for the alliance's heads of state.

"Russia has ... intensified its aggressive hybrid actions against Allies, including through proxies, in a campaign across the Euro-Atlantic area," the declaration said, noting the Kremlin's "provocations at Allied borders."

"We are determined to constrain and contest Russia's aggressive actions," the declaration continued.

The Latvian Ministry of Defense provided additional details about what is expected on the first line of defense of both NATO and the European Union (EU):

"The border area will be equipped with specially designated and safe storage for explosives, mines and engineering equipment that can be quickly dispatched to reinforce the defense line," according to a Defense Ministry statement seen by Kontur.

This list demonstrates that future installations will provide equipment for warfare not only against light infantry but also against heavy armor in case Russia launches a full-scale attack on the eastern flank of NATO and the EU.

"The construction of the Baltic Defense line is separately funded by each participating country. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense is considering the possibilities to apply for EU funding as well," the statement said.

"The problem was bigger two or three years ago," Raimonds Bergmanis, a former Latvian defense minister, told Kontur.

"But the flow of migrants is activated from time to time," he continued. "Therefore the cooperation between our armed forces and [the National Guard] ... is extremely important. And this is the case also for our neighbors -- for Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, even Finland."

Countering Moscow, Minsk's plans

Bergmanis is certain that Russian and Belarusian officials are involved in periodic attempts by impoverished migrants to storm the Latvian border.

"We know these people are organized and collected in Minsk or Moscow airports. And of course it is done to destabilize our countries," he said.

Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been defiant.

"I have no intention of ordering border guards or other [government employees] to protect the European Union on the border of Belarus and Poland," TASS quoted him as saying in July.

This means that the border guards and soldiers in adjacent EU countries will not have it easy for much longer.

The migrants trying to cross the border are not just from the Middle East and Afghanistan.

"There was a person with the intention to fight on the Russian side against Ukraine," Guntis Pujāts, commander of the State Border Guard, said in June, according to LSM.

He was referring to someone heading the other direction, toward Russia.

The war in Ukraine affects the security situation in a much broader region.

"In the Western military district of Russia [abolished in February 2022 and succeeded by the Moscow and Leningrad military districts] there are quite a few military bases quite close to Latvia and other neighboring countries," Rostoks said.

"If our air defense fails, Russian attack helicopters will reach Riga in [90 minutes]," he said.

Latvia and Estonia still have to wait a "few years" before receiving IRIS-T defense systems they bought from Germany, he added.

As for ground forces, "the multinational battlegroup of NATO will soon become a full-size brigade," he said, referring to the Enhanced Forward Presence military units.

They are deployed in eight countries on NATO's eastern flank. The EFP unit in Latvia is led by Canada.

Building the civil defense system

Along with the growing allied military support, Latvia plans to boost its national military capabilities.

The main focus will be to strengthen society's resilience by better informing the public and by building up civil defense.

"The objective of this system is to get the Latvian population ready to defend the country, facilitate efficient crisis management at the national level and support critical functions of the state, including the work of government, energy supply, health care, logistics, international relations, sustainability of defense capabilities, internal security, economy and infrastructure, psychological resilience, etc., during different [crises]," according to the Defense Ministry.

Riga is resolute about defending the country from all types of Russian threats, which it says will not disappear even if the war in Ukraine ends.

"We can forget about some feeling that the war will end and all trade will resume," Rinkēvičs said during his June visit to the border with Russia. "We call, however, for a reduction in business volumes, both with Russia and Belarus, and an end to them."