"The purpose of our office, within the Iron Wolf Brigade, is to support each of the eFP BG nations in terms of accommodation, food, or special requests during an exercise or an authority visit," explains Captain Darius, Chief of Host Nation Support. "We are the liaison office between the Allied nations and the Lithuanian military stationed at the Rukla barracks".
To get this on a higher perspective, the eFP Battle Groups in the Baltic states are actually NATO in action. Their maneuvers obviously bother neighboring countries.
It is interesting that the NATO military exercises in the Baltic States are being thoroughly observed by Moscow and Minsk and considered as a threat to the Union State of Russia and Belarus. These two countries understand that NATO exercises in the region seize opportunities for NATO and Allied nations to sharpen warfighting skills by focusing on high-end capabilities. So, obviously, they will prepare a response.
Russia and Belarus are already linked closely militarily. They have an integrated air- and missile-defense system, a regional group of forces comprised of four Belarusian brigades and special forces and the Russian 20th Guards Army. Moreover, Belarus is a member of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
During the current crisis, Lukashenko has claimed that Putin has assured him the CSTO would provide aid amid unfounded claims that NATO had massed troops on Belarus's western border.
"It is likely that Russia will try to exploit the crisis in Belarus to increase its military presence there. Such presence can take a form of much more frequent exercises and rotational presence of troops," explained Wojciech Lorenz, a security analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs.
In September, Russian forces were deployed to Brest, Belarus, just 5 kilometers from the border with Poland, as part of annual exercises.
Some 1,000 Russian airborne assault forces mounted mock air assaults and strategic bombing missions involving six Russian Tu-22 long-range bombers.
The Slavic Brotherhood drills from September 15 to 25 were a message from Russia to NATO, Keir Giles, author of the book Moscow Rules and a consulting fellow at London's Chatham Hous said. The second part of it took from October 12 to October 16.
The possibility of deploying more Russian forces in Belarus will only add to security concerns for NATO, argued Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations.
On the one hand, the additional Russian forces in Belarus could further increase tension at the border with NATO. On the other hand, increasing its presence in the Baltic States, NATO provokes increasing Russia's military presence near its borders. This is a vicious circle that leads nowhere.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
