Europe
Putin’s Posturing on NATO’s Doorstep Raises Alarm
Two years after the invasion of Ukraine, the Baltic states are wary of an emboldened Russia with imperialistic ambitions.
A few hours drive east of Riga through a snow-carpeted landscape of forest, fields and frozen lakes, motorists are told in Latvian and English that they’re entering “Borderland.” Cars are forbidden from stopping and photographs are not allowed. Watch towers look out across a belt of birch and pine trees that mark the frontier with Russia.
This is the edge of the European Union and the limit of NATO’s reach. It’s a boundary bristling with the latest camera and sensor technology in anticipation that Vladimir Putin may be preparing to breach it.