Europe has 3-5 years to prepare for threat from Russia's side – Estonian PM

photo: Getty Images
photo: Getty Images
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Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia, believes that Europe has three to five years to prepare for a possible military threat from Russia on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance.

Source: Kallas in an interview for The Times, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Kallas referred to the assessment by Estonian intelligence, according to which Russia in case of hypothetical truce with Ukraine will need from three to five years to resume the military threat on the border of Eastern NATO member states.

Quote: "Our intelligence estimates it to be three to five years, and that very much depends on how we manage our unity and keep our posture regarding Ukraine. Because what Russia wants is a pause, and this pause is to gather its resources and strength. Weakness provokes aggressors, so weakness provokes Russia," Kallas said.

This is why, according to the Estonian PM, the West needs to strengthen its military support for Ukraine so that it could launch a severe blow and deprive Russia of the ability to threaten its neighbours for many years.

She thinks that in the long-term perspective NATO must adopt the strategy of "deterring" Russia, following the example of the Cold War which provides for the increase of defence expenses of each member state to at least 2.5% of their GDP.

"Russia has never lost its last colonial war. I’ve been reading a lot and trying to understand how we can break this historical cycle. And the key element to this is accountability. They have never been accountable for the crimes they committed," Kallas stressed.

Earlier the Bild media outlet reported that it gained access to a secret document of the German Bundeswehr – a training scenario which shows a step-by-step description of how a military conflict between Russia and NATO may develop. The actions of Russia and the West are described month by month, culminating in the deployment of hundreds of thousands of NATO troops and the inevitable onset of war in the summer of 2025.

Jānis Sārts, Director of the NATO Centre of Excellence for Strategic Communications, noted on Twitter that Bild has a training scenario, which is always a fictional situation.

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