Vladimir Putin made it clear that NATO’s bases in Eastern Europe are on his radar, when he said last week that Russia reserves the right to strike the alliance’s military installations .
The words must have chilled the 1,600 or so Canadians based in Latvia supporting Operation Reassurance, the biggest reinforcement of NATO’s collective defence in a generation.
According to people familiar with the mission, morale is flat, with many of the troops feeling exposed, under-equipped and forgotten by the Canadian public. The black humour in Camp Adazi has it that the Canadians would be a “speedbump” if the Russians attacked.
