Global
In Latvia, boredom will become our soldiers’ worst enemy
By Scott Taylor May. 17, 2017
Unless Putin loses his marbles, he will never challenge a NATO alliance that collectively spends more than a dozen times the annual Russian defence budget.
A Canadian infantry officer and his Latvian counterpart in the Hohenfels Training Area, Germany, during an exercise as part of NATO’s Operation Reassurance mission in central and eastern Europe on March 26. MCpl Jennifer Kusche photograph courtesy of DND
OTTAWA—Early next month, an estimated 450 Canadian troops will begin deploying into Latvia. This mission is part of a major NATO effort known as Enhanced Forward Presence to deter any Russian aggression into the Baltic states. Given that Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia all became full-fledged members of the NATO alliance in 2004, this deployment of thousands of NATO troops along the Russian border is an unnecessary provocation of the Kremlin.
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