DISINFO: NATO instructed Estonia to prepare for conflict with Russia
SUMMARY
NATO instructed a member country to prepare for a possible conflict with Russia. The Atlantic Alliance tasked Estonia’s Armed Forces to prepare for a possible conflict with Moscow, said Vahur Karus, chief of the Joint Headquarters of the Estonian Defense Forces in a recent interview with local media. “Our deep strike capability is fully a part of NATO plans today, and NATO tells us that we need to take care of certain targets, which is when they can come and take the next steps”, he explained. This top official admitted that hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv provided a radical change not only for Estonia but also for many NATO allies. “We cannot just wait around to be hit with a sledgehammer and need to be able to do some things first”, he declared.
RESPONSE
This is a disingenuous distortion of the original interview with the chief of the Joint Headquarters of the Estonian Defense Forces Vahur Karus. The goal of the manipulation is to promote a long-term pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about a malign, ever-aggressive NATO.
Karus never uttered anything similar to what this disinformation story claims in its initial paragraph. In the original news report, the interviewer asks him: “While the NATO defense plan for us used to be to hold out independently for ten days or whatever, the new plan, as I understand it, suggests we should be able to defeat the Russian forces in their own territory, where the units that would be attacking Estonia are based. It is a fundamental change”. Karus answers: “Absolutely, but it is a change the Ukraine war brought for many NATO allies. We cannot just wait around to be hit with a sledgehammer and need to be able to do some things first”. From this exchange, it is clear that they are talking about an update in Estonia’s defense strategy in line with NATO plans in case of a Russian attack. The other sentences are also taken out of context, which in the original news report always appear in a clearly hypothetical scenario of self-defence and society resilience. However, the wording in this disinformation story is formulated in a totally different way to suggest a proactive preparation for aggression against Russia.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that NATO plans to send troops to Ukraine, that NATO escalates the conflict in Ukraine to start an open war with Russia, that NATO plans to draw Belarus and Russia into the war through border provocations, that NATO is practicing an invasion of the CSTO countries, and that NATO is planning to invade Belarus in 2025.