Russia & NATO’s East: Building a Drone ‘Wall’

Last week, Jim Geraghty described how Russia was upping the pressure in the eastern Baltic, “removing Estonia’s border-marker buoys from the Narva River.” It’s worth adding that it’s not a particularly wide river at that point. You can look across it and see the cars driving along the road on the Russian side and so on.

With perfect symbolism, the western side of the river is watched over by the Hermann Castle, built by the Danes and then reinforced by the Teutonic knights (history in this part of the world is complicated). The castle is the symbol of the city of Narva, a once beautiful city, which, after its almost total destruction during the Second World War, was rebuilt Soviet-style and repopulated with an ethnic Russian population. To say that Narva is a sensitive spot is an understatement.

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Andrew Stuttaford

Andrew Stuttaford is the editor of National Review's Capital Matters.

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Last week, Jim Geraghty described how Russia was upping the pressure in the eastern Baltic, “removing Estonia’s border-marker buoys from the Narva River.” It’s worth adding that it’s not a particularly wide river at that point. You can look across it and see the cars driving along the road on the Russian side and so on.

With perfect symbolism, the western side of the river is watched over by the Hermann Castle, built by the Danes and then reinforced by the Teutonic knights (history in this part of the world is complicated). The castle is the symbol of the city of Narva, a once beautiful city, which, after its almost total destruction during the Second World War, was rebuilt Soviet-style and repopulated with an ethnic Russian population. To say that Narva is a sensitive spot is an understatement.