Summary
Narva, Estonia’s third-largest city on the Russian border, faces ongoing provocations from Moscow, including GPS jamming, drone incursions, and propaganda.
With a 96% Russian-speaking population and historical ties to Russia, concerns grow that the Kremlin may exploit ethnic divisions to justify aggression, as seen in Ukraine.
Estonia, a NATO member, has increased defense spending to 3.7% of GDP and plans border upgrades, but doubts remain over NATO’s readiness.
Local tensions persist, with propaganda battles, strained cross-border relations, and recruitment challenges among Narva’s Russian-speaking population.
They’re doing the best they can with what they have. Also, Estonia tends to specialize in counterintelligence and cybersecurity these days. And specialization is one of the intended fringe benefits of NATO, in that it allows smaller countries to fill more niche capabilities like that, and act as force multipliers for larger members.