Kremlin plans a hybrid operation in the Baltics


Putin may succeed to destabilize the three republics - political analyst.

The Russian Federation is preparing a large-scale hybrid operation in Estonia, Latvia, and Estonia, the three Baltic countries that had been part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

Speaking in a New Year’s Eve interview to journalist Yulia Latynina, Russian political analyst and historian Valery Solovey appeared confident that President Vladimir Putin and his security and intelligence services are cooking an operation similar to the Donbas scenario. 

The goal is to destabilize the Baltic nations and break up the solidarity within NATO.

Defending his prediction, Solovey quoted U.S. President Joe Biden as saying that Russia “does have an intention to attack the United States’ NATO allies, based on U.S. intelligence assessments” [translation from Russian].

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That intention, he continued, is at the stage of operational planning and won’t be carried out anytime soon – at least not during the next few months – and won’t involve any uniformed troops.

Russian strategists believe they have sufficient resources and boldness to act and succeed, profiting from the West’s “weaknesses of principle” and deviation of attention to other conflicts, according to the analyst.

The pause in U.S. financial and military assistance for Ukraine is interpreted in Moscow as the West’s – and particularly America’s – fatigue and unpreparedness to go through to the end, Solovey argued, adding that the Kremlin is optimistic about its plans in the light of diminishing Western support.

One of the planners is Nikolai Patrushev, chairman of the Russian Security Council and a close ally of Putin, Solovey specified.

“Putin is either dead or seriously ill”

Valery Solovey is known for accurate predictions in many regards, but he also has been wrong about a number of subjects. For example, in 2016 he claimed that President Putin suffered from a serious illness, without providing proof.

Investigative outlets later discovered that more than a dozen of doctors accompanied the dictator wherever he traveled. Among them there were specialists treating cancer and thyroid problems.

In fact, Putin “is dead” and his clones have replaced the former KGB colonel, according to Solovey.

He was also right to predict the war between Russia and Ukraine, but wrong about the full-scale invasion.

Last time Solovey anticipated a Russian attack on the Baltic states was in 2019 and 2020.

The Russian government has officially listed Valery Solovey as “a foreign agent”.

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