Pentagon Urged Baltic States to Tone Down Rhetoric on Russia
Reuters reports that US Defense Department officials have in recent weeks asked several NATO members, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, to soften their language on the Russian threat. The Pentagon declined to comment.
Officials from the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) have in recent weeks asked several NATO countries to tone down public statements about the threat posed by Russia, according to Reuters, which cites four people familiar with the matter. The report was also carried by the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda. It matters because the Pentagon is currently reviewing the size of US troop deployments in Europe, and the Baltic states sit on NATO's eastern flank, bordering Russia.
What was said, and to whom
The sources say Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were among the countries that received the appeals. It is not known whether similar messages, delivered in bilateral meetings, were also passed to other European governments.
The American officials reportedly argued that some remarks by European leaders and officials undermine the continent's security. One source said the comments that drew attention included European leaders' statements that Russia has reached an impasse and is resorting to ever more desperate measures as its invasion of Ukraine slows to a crawl.
The sources named one of the officials who conveyed the message as Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's head of policy and a key figure in the ongoing review of US troop numbers in Europe. One source said Colby recently told a Baltic official that Russians should not be "provoked", citing as an example of unhelpful rhetoric European statements that Russia is "cornered like a rat". Another source said that at a separate recent meeting the Pentagon urged an Estonian delegation to be "restrained" in its statements.
None of the sources said the advice was delivered in a confrontational manner. One European official said the guidance, though friendly in tone, was surprising.
Pentagon response
A Pentagon spokesperson, asked by Reuters for comment, said: "Private conversations between allies remain just that, so we will not comment on these claims."
Background
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has recently spoken of information suggesting Russia's hybrid war against Europe could escalate by Christmas. The German armed forces have for the first time raised their assessment of the threat of Russian sabotage against their troops to "significant", the second-highest level on their danger scale.
