Following the lead of its EU neighbors, Latvia, which is currently ruled by a right-of-center coalition, has also strengthened the protection of its border with Belarus in response to what it refers to as a “rapidly increasing hybrid threat.”
After having witnessed a significant uptick in illegal migrants attempting to cross its border with Belarus, Latvian Defense Minister Ināra Mūrniece (National Aliance) on Tuesday, August 15th, announced that the government would be deploying an unknown number of army units to help bolster security along its 172-kilometer border to the east.
Prior to the defense minister’s announcement, the Latvian border guard in a statement said that at least 96 illegal migrants had attempted to cross the border from Belarus into Latvia in the last 24 hours, and added that it had obtained information about a “possible increase in hybrid threats.”
According to the Latvian Interior Ministry, 5,800 migrants attempted to cross the border irregularly this year—292 of whom have been granted asylum on humanitarian grounds.
The border guard accused Belarusian authorities of being involved with organizing flows of asylum seekers and refugees across the Latvian border. Furthermore, officials said that border guards have been recalled from their holidays to help assist with patrols.
Latvia, like Lithuania and Poland, is concerned that troops from Russia’s Wagner Group presently stationed in Belarus may be working to facilitate illegal migration into the EU in an attempt to destabilize it.
The three EU neighbors that share borders with Belarus have been increasingly on edge since some 3,000 Wagner troops were stationed in Belarus in the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny attempt.
Poland and other Western governments leveled similar accusations against Belarus and Russia during the summer of 2021 when tens of thousands of illegal migrants attempted to cross into Poland from neighboring Belarus, calling it an orchestrated “hybrid attack,”—a charge which Belarus denied.
In the wake of the crisis, the Polish government promptly erected a 186-kilometer-long wall along its border with Belarus.
The move comes after Poland and Lithuania announced in mid-July that security measures along their eastern borders and the EU’s external borders would be tightened. While Lithuania shares a border of nearly 700 kilometers with Belarus, an ally of the Russian Federation, the Polish-Belarusian border is some 420 kilometers long.
Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Thursday, August 10th, announced that Warsaw is making preparations to relocate as many as 10,000 additional troops to the border with Belarus to support Border Guard units.
Earlier this week, Polish authorities arrested a pair of Russian nationals on suspicion of espionage. The two Russians allegedly had been disseminating Wagner propaganda material in an effort to recruit soldiers.
