NATO monitors the eastern border as Russia’s hybrid tactics open a ‘second front’, Shortly after midnight, several masked men in boats began removing orange navigational aids on the Narva River that separates Estonia from Russia – a watercourse that demarcates the extent of NATO’s reach.
Even this late in the day, it is twilight in late May in northern Europe, making the Russian border guards busy lifting the markers clearly visible to the watching Estonian authorities.
But again, the Russian actions in the early hours of May 23 were not necessarily intended to be carried out under the cover of darkness; Estonia saw it as an explicit signal of intent to the Baltic states and the West more broadly.
