After disinformation and propaganda campaigns to undermine the unity of the EU and attempts at sabotage in several Member States, comes a new move from the Kremlin, this time, on account of its maritime borders. The Russian Government is threatening to expand the extent of its territorial waters in the Baltic Sea, close to Finland and Lithuania—two NATO allies. The Ministry of Defense’s proposal to redraw the coordinates of its maritime limits and declare internal marine waters – that is, national territory – a part located east of the Gulf of Finland and another area close to two cities in the Kaliningrad enclave have raised concerns. of the allies of the Atlantic Alliance. More than two years after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania has denounced the move as “another hybrid operation” by Russia.
The Russian plan, which was published on the Defense Ministry’s legal portal on Tuesday night and removed without explanation early Wednesday afternoon, has drawn harsh condemnation from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Latvia. The initiative comes weeks after several NATO allies accused Moscow of jamming airline GPS over the Baltic Sea. If carried out, Moscow could threaten to intercept ships and planes from third countries that cross the areas it considers its own.
Moscow alleges in the document that the coordinates of its current maritime borders, established in 1985, “do not fully correspond to the current geographical situation” because, according to the Kremlin’s version, they were drawn up with small-scale navigation charts from the 20th century that “they do not allow determining the external limit of the waters of the internal sea.”
In recent months, while increasing its push into Ukraine, where it is trying to open a new front in the east, Russia has increased its sabotage, cyberattacks and hybrid operations, according to Western intelligence sources, in an effort to destabilize Europe in a super year. electoral (the European elections are from June 6 to 9 and several countries go to the polls this year).
Russian hackers
On Tuesday, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana warned of increased Russian activities. “US, British and Canadian agencies have warned of terrorist groups hackers Russians, linked to Russia’s GRU [su agencia de inteligencia militar], directed at infrastructure, including water treatment plants in Texas and Indiana, Poland and France,” he said. “Recently, there was a sustained attack on a European port. “If they had been successful, they would have paralyzed the port and disrupted supply chains across the entire European continent,” he said without wanting to give more details.
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The Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, charged this Wednesday against the Russian plan to redraw maritime borders. “Another Russian hybrid operation is underway, this time they are trying to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about their intentions in the Baltic Sea,” he said. Lithuania has defined the move as an “obvious escalation against the EU and NATO.” “You must receive a firm, appropriate response,” he claimed. Lithuania has summoned a Russian diplomatic representative to ask for explanations and has assured that he will coordinate its response with allies.
The Kremlin assured this Wednesday that there is “nothing political” in the proposal. “You can see how tensions are escalating, the level of confrontation, particularly in the Baltic region, demands the necessary steps from our relevant agencies to ensure our security,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
The Russian document plans to review the maritime line starting from its coasts. In the case of the border with Finland, it would modify its naval extension taking the Russian islands as a reference, and in Kaliningrad it would modify the extension of its territorial waters next to the cities of Baltiisk and Zelenogradsk.
“The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea contains provisions on the definition of coastal maritime zones; and also how to review them. We assume that Russia, as part of the convention, acts accordingly,” responded the Finnish Foreign Minister, Elina Valtonen, through x.
“C.using confusion is also a hybrid influence. “Finland is not confused,” warned Valtonen, whose country joined NATO in 2023 in an accelerated procedure. Helsinki, traditionally neutral between the Atlantic Alliance and Russia, requested membership a few months after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine.
Although Vladimir Putin initially considered it irrelevant that Finland was part of NATO, the Russian leader this year ordered a reinforcement of the troop presence on its border. In addition, Norwegian intelligence reported in 2023 that it had evidence that the Russian Baltic fleet was armed with nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, and Nordic media also reported the presence of Russian ships prepared to sabotage underwater cables.
Russia’s broad concept of its territorial waters had caused some serious incidents with kyiv before the invasion of Ukraine. The most notable event took place in 2018, when the Russian navy captured 24 Ukrainian sailors when their three vessels were preparing to cross the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov. The Russian Coast Guard fired at the ships with the excuse that the territorial waters of Crimea, illegally annexed in 2014, were theirs.
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