Afrasianet - (Reuters) -  NATO troops from 14 countries gathered at the Adazi military base in Latvia for the alliance's largest military exercise since the Cold War, at a time when military capabilities and efforts are geared to countering Russia, despite differences between NATO members on the nature of the threat and defense spending.

According to  the Wall Street Journal, the exercise began with a warning that enemy forces had crossed Latvia's border with Russia, approaching the capital, communicating in multiple languages, and through different radios, the troops raced to push the imaginary invaders toward the wetlands where their tanks would stumble.

This year's exercise, called Steadfast Defender 2024, aims to send a message to Moscow that NATO is "ready to defend its members, especially those close to the border with Russia, including Latvia."

Western hysteria combined with Ukrainian defeats on various fronts with Russia has no limits.

This year's exercise, the largest since 1988, will take place over a four-month period to May, at sites stretching from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea, involving about 90,000 troops, 1,100 combat vehicles, 80 aircraft and 50 naval vessels.

The operation, which is taking place in Latvia, is one of several carried out close to the European border with Russia. Since Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, NATO has set Europe's border with Russia in mind  .

Latvia's exercise, which is taking place near the capital Riga, is the largest in terms of the number of participating countries conducted by NATO this year, joining 11 member states that already have troops in Latvia, including Canada,the United States , Iceland andEstonia.  

Canadian troops stationed in Latvia are currently the largest deployment outside Ottawa, and for many of these Canadians, defending against Russia is "personal," especially with Canadians earlier stationed at a base in western Ukraine, where they trained local forces in previous years. Two years ago, Moscow hit the base with missiles, destroying the barracks where they lived.

NATO countries have maintained that Russia is unlikely to launch an outright invasion against any neighboring member state in the near future, despite recent statements by some NATO military leaders about the possibility that Moscow could be "strong enough to attack in a few years."  

Latvia joined the alliance in 2004, 13 years after its independence from the Soviet Union, and since then, NATO requirements and standards have forced the Latvian armed forces to modernize its military, and Western military vehicles have replaced old Soviet models.  

In the post-Cold War era, these technical differences were insignificant, because NATO forces from different countries rarely fought alongside each other, but now they need to be able to share equipment and know that one army cannon can fire another army cannon shells.  

NATO experts have set the standards for equipment and worked to ensure that the equipment works interchangeably, but even for one of NATO's core standards, 155mm artillery shells, member states produce "14 different models."

Many of the approximately 200 different weapons systems supplied to Ukraine came from NATO countries, and this diverse combination caused a "maintenance nightmare" for Ukraine, which had to grueling a painstaking search for spare parts.  

During Exercise Crystal Arrow, a battalion led by Latvian Army Lieutenant Jaidis Landratovs worked alongside U.S. forces, acting as invading forces from a fictitious state called Okacus, marked with red  X marks on their equipment, as NATO avoids using the names of real adversaries in training.  

Canadian Lieutenant Jonathan Cox, who was temporarily stationed in Latvia to oversee NATO's International Combat Group, was commander of the Defence Forces, which included troops from 11 countries.

As the mock invasion began, his forces moved in and took up defensive positions while waiting for orders on dealing with their attackers.  

According to Cox, soldiers who spoke different languages struggled to communicate with each other, and although English and French were the official languages of NATO, their fluency was mixed.

Latvia and Russia. Who compensates who for the Soviet era?

Ironically, after more than decades of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Latvia reopened the file of what it considers a Soviet occupation of its territory that extended for about seventy years, demanding that Russia pay enormous compensation for the injustice and persecution it suffered.  Who compensates whom?

A specialized committee set up by the Latvian government in 2005 to calculate the economic, environmental and demographic damage incurred by the country as a result of the Soviet "occupation"  demanded that Moscow pay 185 billion euros in compensation.

The commission ceased to function in 2009 due to Latvia's financial crisis and resumed operations in 2013.

The announcement of the Latvian committee's claim for reparations from Moscow came after the justice ministers of the three Baltic republics of Latvia, Litva and Estonia signed in November 2015 a memorandum of understanding and intent to claim financial compensation from Russia for damage caused to their republics during the Soviet occupation.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on Latvia's demands when it formed its committee in 2005, saying, "The Russian Federation, keen not to repeat the Yugoslav scenario on the territory of the republics of the Soviet Union, did an unprecedented job in human history when it gave up tens of thousands of kilometers of its historical territory to maintain security and peace in the Soviet space, and then issued such nonsense to demand compensation."

In an interview with Russia's Channel One, Putin borrowed a famous phrase from Russian heritage that read: "They will not get a dead donkey to his ears."

The media and a number of Russian politicians have addressed this issue with some irony, as the Russian newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravd" reported what Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page by announcing an award for the best journalistic comment on the news of Latvian compensation and entitlements.  

Political analyst Andrei Ontikov says Russia is used to hearing such statements from Latvian officials, "and they are trying to provoke us."

He considered that these statements are not innocent, and that they come at the push and direction of the United States to maintain tension between Russia and its neighbors, as is the case with Georgia.

The Russian analyst did not rule out similar calls from the former Soviet republics on the grounds that Russia is its legitimate heir, and considered this part of US plans against Russia.

In response to Latvian demands, Ontikov pointed out that Latvia's labor productivity increased about sixty times by 1965 compared to what it was before it joined the Soviet Union, and economic capabilities multiplied dozens of times.

He added that the revenues from the transport of Russian oil through the network of pipelines laid by the Soviet Union on the territory of Latvia represent 25% of its gross national product, and wondered whether Russia is the city after these calculations or Latvia?

Media warfare technology expert Pavel Rudkin described Latvia's demands as "stupid" and unrealistic, and considered them stemming from the need for political manipulation to distract the Latvian people from internal economic and social problems.

Rudkin pointed out that the Soviet Union established dozens of factories in Latvia that still exist today and on which the Latvian economy is based, most notably a car and bus factory and an iron and steel factory and heavy industry.

According to the Russian expert, he also built an infrastructure that includes institutions, hospitals, schools, apartments and other sites that still exist today.

If Russia wanted to demand the billions it invested under the Soviet Union from other republics, it would have reached fantastic numbers, he said.

  The United States and European governments are "deeply concerned" about Russia's success in ending its war against Ukraine on favorable terms, which may be why US House Speaker Mike Johnson has challenged his Republican Party's desire to accept  a $60 billion Ukraine aid package.

But Russian President Putin rejects warnings of a possible Russian attack on NATO members such as Estonia, calling it "pure nonsense."

The hysteria of some EU officials is so high that the head of the Bundestag's EU Affairs Committee, Anton Hofreiter, has warned that the rise of separatist voices in the United States, including through former President Donald Trump's statements that he would call on Russia to invade European allies who are "not paying enough to enjoy NATO protection," has already "eroded the alliance's deterrence."

So America is pressuring many of the Baltic states in an inflammatory way against Russia,

But the Russian position has always been clear, which is that Russia will not cut relations on its part with the Baltic states, and with the indicators of the Atlantic defeat in Ukraine, the NATO countries do not want to admit this defeat, but this will not change anything, even if the Baltic countries turn into American colonies, as is the case with European countries that were once colonial countries, so today they are subject in one form or another to American colonialism.