STOCKHOLM - Russia has stepped up its hybrid warfare tactics in the Baltic Sea, and NATO countries in the region should prepare for an extended conflict with Moscow, experts said, after cables were severed and navigation systems scrambled.
Berlin said last week that a Russian cargo ship recently fired signal flares at a German military helicopter, another sign of the mounting tensions in the Baltic Sea, where all of the bordering countries except Russia are now NATO members.
There is currently an "increase of Russian navy and civilian vessels in the Baltic Sea, (and) this presence is increasing significantly" German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Dec 5.
"What the Russian navy is trying to do is send a signal saying, 'We are here'," he added.
Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev said that "Russia does not at all like the point of view that would have the Baltic Sea be a NATO 'lake'".
Tensions in the region have escalated since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with European countries regularly expressing concern over "hybrid attacks" blamed on Russia.
"The Baltic is in a kind of grey zone between war and peace, where NATO countries have to be ready for harassment of any kind," former Danish navy commander Nils Wang told AFP.
Russia wants to show "that it can basically still make it troublesome for NATO to operate in the Baltic", he said.
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