Russia is an acute threat to “any healthy country”, and Europe is only at the beginning of its defense reconstruction, the Times prime minister Estonian, Kristen Michal, who called NATO's European allies to take measures to start purchasing weapons.
After Russia sent at least 19 drones across the Poland border violated the Estonian airspace with a military-8-week military helicopter, Michal points out that his country's repeated warnings about Russian aggression have been fully justified.
“Russia is an acute threat to Europe, for NATO, for every healthy country in the world. We were perceived even as a little paranoid when we were talking about the threats represented by Russia. But now, all the things we have attracted, those in the Baltic, Poland or Nordic, has come to life.”
Estonia insists that Russia's imperialism and belligence is a threat not only for its immediate neighbors, but also for alliance as a whole and for other parts of the world where Russian mercenaries have acted, such as Subsahanian Africa.
Russia, a danger beyond war
As for the current war, Michal suggested that if a peace agreement or a “frozen conflict” situation were reached, tens of thousands of demobilized Russian soldiers would overcome and destabilize regions far beyond Europe, as Wagner's private military company did.
“Russia has more armed people than before the war. They receive higher salaries, they have fighting capabilities. Some of them are criminals and will be treated as heroes in Russia,” he noticed.
“They will not return to the regular army. They will join the various paramilitary operations or secret operations throughout the planet: in Europe, fires, stores in Asia. Africa. It is not just the East border [a NATO]. It is about what will happen throughout the planet when the war is over. ”
Michal, who succeeded Kajei Kallas, succeeded in the position of prime minister and leader of the center-right reformist party last summer, believes that Europe is still far from having the military force needed to keep the Kremlin at a distance. “It will take a lot for Europe to become much stronger,” he said. “At this moment we are only at the beginning.”
The case of Estonia
In Estonia, which has a relatively small budget deficit and one of the smallest public debts in Europe in relation to the dimension of its economy, the arming at a rapid rate, however, required drastic discounts of expenses and tax increases. Although the European Union has recently relaxed its fiscal rules to allow Member States to borrow for defense investments, they are facing a deep financial crisis.
“We have to reduce public budgets, we have to reduce different services,” Michal said. “We had to increase the VAT and take loans to be repaid. It is difficult, but there is no other way if you want to live in peace. Rational speaking, you know that you need 5% of GDP for defense. At the emotional level, you say:” I like life more when I had more money. ““
A factor that facilitated this process a little was the digitalization of public services in Estonia, which Michal estimated to save his country the equivalent of 2% of GDP each year. The UK is among the countries that study the model.
Michal would also like to see European allies putting their resources together and buying weapons together to reduce costs. “We are sitting at the same queues. If we made common purchases, that would help a lot. We could buy ten [unități ale unui sistem de armament]Poland will buy one hundred. That means cheaper and much easier accessible. ”
The violations of the Polish air space last Wednesday last by Russia was a premiere: NATO was “tested in the air space”. The answer, with aircraft and air defenses of at least five allies who were involved in the breaking of four of the drones, passed the test convincingly.
East Santinela
Prime Minister Eston also welcomed the initiative of the Alliance, Eastern Santinela, to strengthen the air defense on the eastern flank with six additional fighter jets and other systems, considering it “good news for bad reasons”.
On September 14, Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a decree that allows foreign military forces to remain on the Polish territory as part of the Eastern Santinela mission.
The Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, said that the break of 3 or 4 of the 19 Russian drones by the Polish air defense units could be considered, “according to Ukrainian standards”, a complete success.
At the weekend, Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to the rest of NATO, saying that it will impose “major” sanctions to Moscow and its supporters only if the EU countries will completely stop the import of Russian oil and impose between 50 and 100% for China goods.
However, Michal has been firmly convinced that America will continue to respect his security for his allies. “Trump said that [deși] He is the president of the United States, NATO and Article 5 is dedicated, ”he said.
“But the demand instead was for Europe to defend much more seriously, to spend for this purpose. For me, it was a very clear message. Everyone, from Russia to China, understands that the United States are committed to NATO.”
