From the Jamestown Foundation: https://jamestown.org/program/baltic...e-russia-nato/

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 88
By: Pavel Felgenhauer
June 29, 2017 04:26 PM Age: 13 mins

Introduction:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has completed its plan, announced last year (July 9, 2016) at the Alliance’s Warsaw Summit, to deploy four multinational battalions to Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as a counter to the apparent Russian threat on its eastern flank, in the Baltic region. Speaking from Brussels a week ago (June 20), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced, “NATO has fulfilled its promise to deploy the four battalions to defend our Alliance, deter aggression and keep the peace. The deployment is now complete, and they are fully operational.” A day earlier, the last allied combat contingent—from Canada—arrived in Latvia. Overall more than 4,000 soldiers from 15 countries—Canada, Albania, the United States, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Norway, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Romania—have been deployed (Militarynews.ru, June 20).
  • Stoltenberg exaggeratingly refers to these multinational battalions as “NATO battlegroups”
  • The U.S. has increased its combat presence in Europe from two brigades to three
  • The increase in forces remains at the level of a tripwire and the multinational aspect is a handicap operationally, but it signals to Moscow that an attack on the Baltics would start a war with most, if not all NATO members
  • Moscow is also increasing its capabilities by creating 20 new military units in the WMD and 40 new bases
  • The WMD has more than 30 ready Battalion Tactical Groups, and readiness has increased 2.5X since 2016
  • The Russian military is deliberately exaggerating the threat from NATO in order to increase its funding and social status, but this is causing a costly standoff
  • European countries are increasing their defense spending and readiness, but the Russian military-industrial-intelligence complex seems to desire this contest
  • The Russian people, however, do not fear NATO as a threat so much as the U.S., and because of Russian propaganda about Russia’s military prowess, they believe that they are secure (whereas in 2015, more than 2/3 feared an imminent foreign invasion)
  • The Kremlin will struggle to bridge the gap between public perceptions of the threat and its own alarmist rhetoric