Riga sources added that Russian defense ministry said that its Baltic Fleet, based in its European enclave of Kaliningrad, was preparing for routine training in the Baltic Sea, including live fire drills to practice hitting air and sea targets. Meanwhile Latvia's Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said "It is a demonstration of force and it is hard to comprehend that it can happen so close to our country".
According to sources the tests are being carried out in Latvia's exclusive economic zone, officials said, an area of the sea just beyond Latvia's territorial waters where Latvia has special economic rights, as well as further west in the Baltic Sea. Presently Riga has closed some of its airspace for the three days of tests, and Sweden also issued a warning to civilian sea traffic and said there could be delays and disruption to civilian air traffic.
Accordingly the missile tests and military drills
follow Russia's massive war games last September, which stretched from the
Baltics to the Black Sea. The exercises unnerved the West because of their
scale, scope and what NATO said was a lack of transparency. But the Latvian defense
ministry summoned Russia's military attach to express its concern. Russia says
it is testing its forces after the winter.
