Russia threat prompts Nordic governments to prepare for worst

Bloomberg Businessweek: 13. November 2014
By Saleha Mohsin

Norway’s Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide

Governments in the Nordic and Baltic region are stepping up their defense preparedness in response to repeated Russian incursions into their territories.

“What we are doing is what is to be expected from a military and political alliance: We are preparing ourselves for what we hope will not happen, we are preparing ourselves for the worst,” Norway’s Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said today in Oslo. “That’s our obligation, that’s an important step in preventing something from happening.”

Annual autumn exercise carried out by the Norwegian Navy and supported by the RNoAF.

At a meeting in the Norwegian capital today that included U.K. Defense SecretaryMichael Fallon, ministers agreed to step up cross-border training as part of a regional alliance to ward off any Russian threat. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly flouted international airspace rules, a behavior that Fallon characterized as “provocative.”

Russia is engaged in “dangerous brinkmanship” toward NATO and Nordic nations in its military moves, with almost 40 incidents of incursions and close encounters since March, according to a Nov. 10 report by European Leadership Network.

The research group identified three incidents that carried a “high probability” of causing casualties or direct military conflict, including a narrowly avoided collision on March 3 between a civilian SAS Group AB airliner taking off from Copenhagen and a Russian reconnaissance plane operating without its transponder, a device that identifies a plane.

Abducted Officer

On Sept. 5, an Estonian intelligence officer was abducted from a border post, while Swedish military spent much of October hunting down a suspected Russian submarine that was hiding in Stockholm’s archipelago, the group said.

The Nordic and Baltic region, which is geographically closer to Russia than the rest of Europe, is coordinating its military preparedness as the European Union and the U.S. discuss the possibility of imposing further sanctions on Putin’s administration. The escalation in tensions follows reports of tanks, artillery and combat troops moving into eastern Ukraine.

Norwegian advanced Surface to Air missile system drill.

Russian actions in Ukraine are “unacceptable,” Soereide said, also citing an increase in Russian training in the Arctic as a further cause for concern. Though Norway sees no “direct” threat from Russia, the development demands a response, she said. Fallon said further Russian incursions into the region’s airspace won’t be tolerated.

“What’s serious here is that what we perceive as defensive measures to defend our allies, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity from any kind of attack is interpreted in Russia as something quite different,” Soereide said.