The unstable situation in Russia alarmed NATO, which immediately took cover. “Russia is an unpredictable and dangerous neighbor. “That is the biggest problem and that is where the dangers for a country like ours arise from,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis warned on the sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. “Our allies,” continued the Lithuanian government representative, “would say that it would take a long time to gather troops to do something dangerous on the NATO border.” But now let’s see how quickly it can be done can: It took half a day for a military commando to come within 200 km of Moscow. So – he says again after Prigozhin’s coup with Wagner’s men – imagine how quickly they can cross Belarus and emerge at the border with Lithuania. Therefore, we call on our allies to take the situation very seriously in view of everything that is happening in Russia and to draw up very concrete plans to strengthen the eastern flank.”
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NATO did not stand by and responded immediately to the call for help. In fact, Germany has decided to station an additional 4,000 troops in Lithuania to help secure the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance. The military will be permanently stationed in Lithuania. Lithuania already has one of eight “combat groups” deployed by NATO to strengthen the alliance’s eastern flank in response to Moscow’s 2014 aggression in eastern Ukraine. Germany is the country coordinating the armed forces deployed to the Baltics by Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway, Portugal and USA.
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