Disinformation that NATO will not protect Baltic states in case of Russia’s aggression

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On May 17, 2017, the Director of the Center for Global Researches, Nana Devdariani, in a program of TV Obiektivi, spoke regarding the NATO’s activity in the Baltic states and noted that the defense systems located there would not protect these countries from Russian aggression.

Nana Devdariani, Center for Global Researches: Regarding the defense capacity of the Baltic states – those hundreds of military personnel as well as the enginery located there, do not provide any guarantees of protection in case of Russia’s aggression, do they? Questions have arisen – will NATO resort to the adequate measures if the Russians carry out the military actions in the Baltic states? The answer is – “most likely not”. Most likely not and definitely not. I mean that there are core countries, whose interests are protected only because they are strong countries. (Ambien)

The aforementioned statement about the vulnerability of Baltic states is false, due to the following facts:

Fact 1. NATO implements Air Policing mission in the airspace of the Baltic states

The Air Policing mission implies protecting the air security of the alliance 24/7, 365 days in a year. Baltic Air Policing was launched in 2004, when the Baltic states joined NATO. The mission is still underway. The mission includes the Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS), the Air Command and Control (Air C2) and the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA(I)) fighter jets, which are in a 24-hour readiness mode and are capable to identify from a long range the objects that operate near NATO air space or are approaching it and adopt respective measures.

Fact 2. The Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – attack against one or more member states is perceived as an attack against all of the member states.

According to the Article 5 of the founding North Atlantic Treaty (Washington Treaty) of NATO from April 4, 1949, “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Therefore, in case of the Russian military offensive on one of the Baltic states, the Article 5 will be triggered.

Fact 3. The Baltic states have several thousands of military personnel.

The Baltic states have several thousands of militaries:

• Estonian Regular Armed Forces constitute approximately 6,000 people, in addition to the Militarized Armed Forces “Security Volunteers League” consisting of 15,000 individuals. During the state of war, Estonian operational structure comprises 60,000 military personnel.

Lithuania’s Professional Army consists of 8,660 soldiers, in addition to the 4,640 individuals from the “National Security Volunteers Forces” and 3,000 soldiers serving the mandatory military conscription. The Lithuanian Military Personnel has been increasing on an annual basis.

  • In 2015, Lithuania resumed the mandatory military conscription. The fact that 20% of the soldiers serving the mandatory military conscription joined the Professional Army in 2016, is also noteworthy.
  • Latvia’s Professional Army consists of 5,000 soldiers.

Fact 4. Baltic states’ military expenditures have been growing on an annual basis.

All three Baltic states have been increasing their military expenditure:

Fact 5. NATO’s military structural units are located in the Baltic states.

Since 2004, NATO’s military forces have been located on Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, in the framework of “Baltic Air Space Policing Mission”. Since 2014, it has also been using Ämari Air Base in Estonia. In addition, Lielvārde Air Base in Latvia is also exploited periodically.

Several anti-Wetern statements by Nana Devdariani:

  •  “Let us look at the daily agenda of the modern liberal world – same-sex marriage and legalization of child adoption for the same-sex couples!… Georgians would still prefer Russia over such West!” (Asaval-Dasavali, September 15-21, 2014)
  • “Interests of the Georgian political elite and the Georgian people are diametrically different! They unequivocally conform with the West, while the people would still prefer Russia over such West!” (Asaval-Dasavali, September 15-21, 2014)
  • “The American trend about the alleged civilian casualties of Russian military actions in Syria finds it difficult to establish itself, as the number of civilian objects “mistakenly” shelled by the American militaries is high.” (Georgia and World, October 19, 2016)

Prepared by Giorgi Revishvili

Myth Detector Lab

Violation: Misleading
Source

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