Baltics in front line of Information War

The Baltic Times ^ | 2015-04-04 | Richard Martyn-Hemphill and Etienne Morisseau

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When visiting NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence — which was established earlier this year in Riga — you will be told, in no uncertain terms, that photography is not allowed. It is easy to assume this is for security purposes. But as you are ushered through the back of the Latvian Ministry of Defence, across a grey courtyard, into a shabby old Soviet building in desperate need of a lick of paint — and then made to wait patiently for a battered, rusty lift to arrive — it is possible to assume that there is another motive for not allowing photos.

“It’s only a temporary home,” assures Estonian Colonel Aivar Jaeski, the deputy director at the Centre, looking slightly embarrassed as we walk into a meeting room. A projector is already whirring, lighting up the bland room with the first slide of a PowerPoint presentation. “The StratCom function is to give advice, direction and guidance; and to coordinate all communication capabilities,” Jaeski tells The Baltic Times. But the ad hoc nature of Nato’s new StratCom COE does not inspire confidence, especially when Jaeski says that “Russia is conducting a huge, promotional information war ... and is trying to separate and divide the western world.”

“They are spending a lot of effort on that,” Jaeski adds. “And spending a lot of money.” The run-down, temporary state of the NATO Centre contrasts unfavourably with Jaeski’s description of Russia’s “huge promotional information war,” and although the centre will move into its smart new home next to Riga airport by the end of the summer, it is a reflection of how NATO and the West are still trying to catch up to some of the new types of security threats posed by the Kremlin.

[varon]

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