Latvia has hardened security at key energy and water sites after intelligence flagged a Russian threat, Reuters reported. Its prime minister has asked NATO for more troops and air defense, warned of election meddling, and rebuked the European governments still shielding Russian gas.
Guarding the dam and the gas
Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs told Reuters that the country had raised its guard. He named a hydroelectric station above the capital and a large underground gas store. Asked to be specific, he pointed to the Incukalns gas facility, the wider energy sector and its companies, and the dam.
Undersea cables in the Baltic have already been damaged in suspected sabotage around the New Year. Russia recently closed seven rail crossings on its NATO borders without explanation. The Kremlin has brushed the warnings aside, calling them "scare stories."
Kulbergs cast the danger as growing. With Russia stalled in Ukraine, he said, its leaders want "a quick win, so the potential hybrid threat is larger than before." He added:
"Anything is possible."
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An election under threat
Latvia, a NATO and EU member that borders Russia, ranks among Kyiv's firmest backers and Moscow's sharpest critics. That standing places it among Moscow's likeliest targets before an October national election.
His government is bracing for possible Russian meddling in the vote. Moscow denies the election-interference charges that Western capitals level at it. It has separately accused Latvia of opening air corridors for Ukrainian drones, showing no evidence.
Kulbergs turned his fire on the EU governments blocking the bloc's 21st sanctions package, singling out Bulgaria. One holdout is enough to keep the whole package stalled. The measures would sanction 250 people and entities and tighten the screws on Russian LNG.
Vetoing parts of it, he argued, carries a share of the blame for dead Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Failing to move on Moscow's shadow fleet and its LNG sales, he said, keeps feeding the "Russian war machine."
