NATO continues to encircle Russia

 

The construction site of the Rudninkai military base in Lithuania

ilPost

 Work has begun on the construction of a German military base in Lithuania, which will host 4,000 soldiers

In Lithuania, work has begun on the construction of a German military base that will house 4,000 troops: it is the first time since World War II that the German army is permanently deployed abroad. In addition to the 4,000 Bundeswehr military, the German armed forces, Lithuania will also host a thousand contractors, or members of private military companies.

The decision to build the base was made following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, for fear that President Vladimir Putin might attack a NATO member country. Last year Germany had pledged to allocate its troops to Lithuania, which is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and most recently the Lithuanian minister Ingrida Simonyte had decided to increase defense spending, which this year will be 3 percent of the country’s GDP (in Italy the estimated expenditure for defense in 2023 was 1.5%).

 

The military base will be built in the city of Rudninkai, which is located about thirty kilometers south of Vilnius, the capital, and about twenty kilometers away from the border with Belarus, a historic ally of Russia. Lithuania will spend about one billion euros on the construction of the military base, whose work is expected to be completed in 2027. 

[Lithuania also borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.  In a post on X the Lithuanian Defense Ministry wrote that the country had “just launched its largest-ever military project at Rudninkai, building a base to house 80% of the German brigade.”

Raimundas Vaiksnoras, Lithuania’s chief of defense, stated that the German “brigade will work as reassurance to our population and as deterrence, to push the Russians out,” as quoted by Reuters.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, the official acknowledged, however, that Vilnius would have to shell out more than €1 billion ($1.10 billion) over the next three years to develop the base – admittedly a “huge investment” for a nation of 2.9 million.

The government hiked taxes to cover the increased outlays.

Berlin already leads a multinational NATO advance force stationed in the Baltic nation.

Moscow has repeatedly made it clear that it views the bloc’s military capabilities inching ever closer to the Russian border as a direct threat to its national security, which it will have to counter accordingly.]