Andreas Norlén, Speaker of the Riksdag (Parliament of Sweden) visited ICDS together with a delegation of Members of the Riksdag on 13 February 2020.
ICDS Research Fellow Martin Hurt and Senior Fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the ICDS James Sherr elaborated on topical issues such as political and military developments in Russia and the impact of them in the Baltic Sea region, rise of China, NATO and transatlantic relations, war in Syria.
Sherr emphasized that Russia wants to change the political borders and to return to historical West. The Kremlin doesn’t want to start a war, but is preparing for it – the distinction between war and peace has become blurry. According to Sherr, if war became an objective for Russia, the hybrid intimidation would be a prelude, not substitute to conventional war.
Sherr pointed out that Russia, actually, is saying out loud exactly what it wants – new security architecture in Europe.
Political coherence and resilience of NATO is a problem for Russia, the researchers underlined. If NATO is united, Russia won’t attack and risk a war with NATO. Therefore, it is very important to maintain the unity of NATO. Hurt added that the transatlantic ties with the US, Canada are also vital for Estonia’s security.
