Hey spare parts army thanks for watching, would you be cool with your country doing a total defense strategy? Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! ridge.com/TASKANDPURPOSE use code: TASK for 10% off
At the same time Lithuania banned sanctioned imports for Russia... Between Russia and Russia. :D Kaliningrad is separated from Russia by Lithuania,and land-blocked right now.
9:10 .. "Walking the suburban streets with guns, something we could never do in the USA" - ?? Umm.. did you not see them in Boston.. did you not see them in New Orleans durning Katrina- going door to door and taking everyone's guns away, like there is no Second Amendment. It's already been shown very clearly, when something happens, the US government does not care about your rights.
The total war concept was taken in yugoslavia. In case of an invasion, everyone and their grandma was supposed to have a firearm, and because we don't have enough Frontline army to resist an occupation, the idea was to attrition them down heavily, whilst small professional army starts making gains. The idea is to discourage invasion due to super high costs
Yugoslav army really didn't have enough for frontline army, they only had more then 2.500 tanks, around 1500 arm. vehicles, more then 2.000 high caliber artillery pieces, more then 350 planes and...i forgot how many helicopters, around 80 ships.
Do you think any European nations besides the uk and Poland will go to war with Russia if they invade the Baltics? I personally don't think they would but I'm curious 🤔
@@artemijszodziks3666 im lithuanian i know what are my language brothers, with these comments your'e making your'e polish comrades to be ashamed. Kad tau skruzdės byrka apmyžtų
A five or six years ago police officer from USA visiting Latvia asked me - how would I characterize Latvians. To which I said - we are like bees. We are peaceful, hard working and quite introvert people who minds their own business, but when the time comes and someone wants to mess with us - may the Lord have mercy on their souls.
As a Latvian this is quite interesting. One comment about Russian's being 'stuck' in Latvia, they are free to return to Russia, and solely decide not to.
Estonian here. They have those "grey passports" wich they don't wanna exchange for estonian passport. Cause they can cross a border to come back to sell illegal ciggarettes and hate estonians again. And ofc. They dont wanna go to russia because it's way better to live in estonia economically. So basically they are tools of russia.
As a Russian-Latvian, now living in USA. This statement is 100% correct. I have no idea how living in Latvia and supporting Putins aggression can be stored peacefully in their heads.
To clarify about the training exercises in Riga: The defence ministry _did not_ apologise about the exercises being held, given that they were mostly supported by the population. What they _did_ apologise for was not informing everyone well enough about them. Edit: I should mention that they will also continue to hold such exercises annually (and I fully support that).
In France we have the military training among civilians too. Especially now because of the threat to our eastern allies. Funny how it’s shocking to Americans. In the news they showed confused American tourists in the middle of one of our exercises, must have been quite the vacation memory lol.
There was nothing to apologize for. There were few local russians, that ignored the warning about training and loud noises and that got used by pro-Rus outlets to paint it black.
@@ukaszt3231fck that guy. I'm glad Poland is doing well and takes it's military seriously. Hope war won't happen but if it does, I'll be happy to fight should to shoulder with you guys.
Hello! I am Latvian who live in west side of Latvia - I am also member of national guard 4.brigade (Latvia military forces) and my full time job is in one of Scandinavian bank who work in Latvia. I love your video - but there is few things what I want to mention. 1) 35% in Latvia is Russian speaking but not Russians - under your statistic 35% is Ukrainians, Belarusians, people from Central Asia and Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and also Moldova - so real number of Russians are 24% about - local Ukrainians are mainly not supporting Russia. Of course - not all Russians supporting Putin - and here coming more and more people from Russia who try find safe place for themself and they family's from Russia and Putin brutal regime. 2) CVRT - yes! But you said it's old - from 1960.g. yeah they original chasse is from that time - but UK sold as rebuild versions + totally new diesel engines + these vehicles have also included Israel made SPIKE anti-tank guided missile systems (same deadly weapon against heavy equipment like tank as U.S. Javelin). 3) What you said correct - it's about weight - how I know Latvia defense ministry was before CVRT been consider to buy tanks but - yeah - when first U.S. M1A2 Abrams came here in Latvia military training base for exercise - then they realized that Tanks lose they mobility in our soft ground + we have 65% terrain covered by deep forests - where tank is just perfect pray for even small infantry unit with simple ATM - like Carl Gustaf. So CVRT is perfect infantry support vehicle for our situation - and you are right about bridges. 3) You did not mention that Latvia have not only CVRT but also M109 artillery - 155 mm gun - and trainings are for them is work together with CVRT + drones. And Latvia together with Finland building together Patria 6x6 APC - it is a Finland project - but Latvia bought 200x Patria 6x6 - but what is the best part of this deal - Latvia are allowed with Finland produce these APC in Latvia (Cēsis town) and first time in history Latvia have military industry since 1991. - and Sweden is willing to join this project. 4) I will not continue about what other weapons and equipment we have - but our next step what is already made - we want get rid of USSR era helicopters - and we waiting our U.S. Black Hawks helicopters delivery + we been training our pilots for them already 2x years at least + next target is HIMARS and NASAMS 3 air defense systems - we also now investing in Liepāja military port - and seen we start build new large military base in somewhere Latvia - so we can bring more equipment + NATO allies and make our force's larger - so we invest in our defense more and more every year. There is video about our military vehicles what you did not include in your video :) th-cam.com/video/Nn6WhzF3NkY/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/uvbluOTGUes/w-d-xo.html
No mention was made of Air Force and Air Defence, which would be critical in stopping Air Assault, the good news is the UA have done a good job of destroying the best of Russias Air Brigades. As a Brit, you made a wise choice of Vehicle, Ukraine has demonstrated the vulnerability of Heavy Tanks, If I was you guys, I would be planning for the worst right now Militarily and on a Civil basis looking at where you are vulnerable and who the enemies within might be.
Dude I honestly admire you, but you should not write such a personal information about, especially that which are military grade.....every russian could know now and they can be really bothering, you don't want threatening homecalls or something like that 😬
There is no 40% non-resident money in Latvian banks anymore. Since 2017 there was a huge change in monetary and AML policy. That number now is closer to 5%. But thank you for overview. And that is a view of veteran Latvian officer with expierence of some missions in AFG.
In January people started remarking on the Russian build-up in Belarus. Nobody really paid much attention. I started paying attention when it was noted that real blood was being delivered to their field hospitals. You don't deliver valuable and perishable items such as blood unless you mean business.
I read about a Ukrainian build up in the Donbass region around the same time .OSCE (An orginisation that observes stuff.Who they are I have no idea)has some interesting data about the month after, about the amount of shelling that was done.Feb 19th-24.I wasn't there so I don't know the truth
You're not the only one to notice. Hell, it's not the real blood that notice them, it's the field hospital itself. If it's only fighting element near the border, that can still be excused as "Military Exercise". But once a field hospital is there, it means they're ready to treat the first wave of casualties.
@@aidendow1532 The OSCE is an extremely reputable European organization that monitors conflict in Europe, and to whom both Ukraine and Russia send observers. They have been in the Donbass since 2014.
I was in Latvia from late April to early May this year. I was there for my Navy Reserve unit and we were conducting transporting Army vehicles throughout the Baltic states and Poland. Yeah, they loved us being there and they were also hosting Ukranian families at the hotel we were staying at too. This article was pretty accurate.
Thanks a lot for posting these videos about Baltic states. There are plenty of videos East vs West, Nato vs Russia, but definitely not enough videos about smaller countries who want to keep their sovereignty, freedom and democracy and how they're achieving it.
Geopolitical thinking ignores the agency that all nations have. I agree, these smaller nations want to be left alone to decide things on their own, and sometimes joining NATO is the only way to deter a Russian invasion. Better to deal with the squabbling leaders of Europe and America than the lone modern tsar.
@@fallinginthed33p eh.... until war breaks out. Problem with these big interconnected global alliances is that if ONE of them fuck up, EVERYONE part of the alliance has to pay for it, one way or the other. Global entangled alliances are what made WW1 so fucking bad. If it weren't for the alliances, the war would've been exclusively between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, with the OPTION of outside aid or intervention being exactly that. Optional for anyone who wants to support one side or the other.
In northern macedonia ethnic Albanians are a constituent people with 20% of the population with the official Albanian language. Serbs and Russians in countries with a population of over 30% do not have nearly the same rights. Let someone explain to me what is that?
I did some training in Latvia recently. They have some interesting gear and they are really going hard on training. I met a few of them that immigrated to the United States, lived here for a decade or so, and the moment Russia invaded they moved back to Latvia and enlisted. Their troops are motivated to defend their country no matter the cost, and I think that mentality is a benefit. I have mad respect for the Latvians, they are ready to fight.
The sad thing is that only the old generation has this readyness to protect the country, it was just announced that mandatory military service will happen. Most young people are actually complaining and bashing the country for doing so. Many want to leave the country because of it and are huge cats about it.
@@lim592 mandatory military service is still not established but is on the verge of "being free willed, but if we choose you and you decline, you are gonna face consequences". It's a few year plan as we don't have the infrastructure for mass enlistment as well as the budget for it. About younger generation not wanting to go to military - if you die defending your country, leaders will take a 30 second moment of silence and move on, only your family and relatives will grieve over you. Not to mention - what does our founding fathers think of the generations today? Are they really proud for what they fought for? For all it's worth, their reasoning is solid; not understanding it is typical boomer mindset when it comes to war. Somehow boomers want everyone to enlist like we have the real power... or is it just that they are wearing different shade of pink glasses? When you are the ones whining about everything in this country, why is it suddenly so important for you to save it when "viss ir slikti, braukšu uz Īriju"? Save some face, having 2nd hand embarrassment for you.
@@ward7576 the founding fathers probably are embarrassed that they fought hard for the country so future generations have their own place, just for the new generation to cry about 6 month of military service, especially since the military service won't involve you start going to war, it's to prepare you for it. I myself as an 19yo will try and go even though I have knee and back problems.
Stellar vid! One thing - unlike UA which is a huge open field, Latvia is basically a huge forest ridden with swamps. Tanks are at a huge disadvantage here and it's basically a guerilla wonderland. We might not have the numbers or tech of our western allies, but we have one thing they don't - a very clear memory of what happens if we lose. Let the putinists come, we will call our local Russians, Ukranians, Jews, Belorussians, Poles and our Eesti and Lithuanian bros to stand up once more. For the first time in our history to kill a red and a nazi you'd have to put a hole in one guy!
After watching a few of your videos a while back, you came off as more of a comedian/arm chair solider. Now I have come to enjoy your views, your humor and how you openly admit to love USA and NATO. It make it clear that you are what you are, and you present things the way YOU see them. I like that a lot, and that is why I'm subbing to your channel. Thanks for the great contents and have a great day!
CVR's are certainly a big part of our military, but just as our neighbours, we are also investing in new IFV's. I think it's also important to point out the CAVS joint programme that introduces the Finnish produced Patria 6x6 APC to both nations as a standardised vehicle that could cut costs whilst also providing some limited versatility. Considering the vehicle can be equipped with a 120mm howitzer and is suited for the muddy swampy terrain of Latvia, it could just as well be the perfect substitute for the lack of MBT's. Of course the programme is quite new and whether the programme is even worthwhile is still unknown, but it appears promising as there are already 200 units on order and its said that the vehicle assembly will be in house starting from 2023.
@@sigspearthumb9574 nope, the only ''gun'' variant Latvia bought was Scimitar with 30mm RARDEN. So calling these things ''light tanks'' is kind of wrong by the video author, they aint no tanks no matter light or whatever else. Its just a IFV without dismount carrying capacity
@@crabyman3555 yeah definitely. The 30mm would only be of limited use against ifvs or apcs not tanks. The 105mm variant is well a bit lethal to the crew. So I’d be surprised if the Latvians had it
im latvian and we dont have any heritage with russia, we hate them, we were occupied by them we will never let that repeat. Thank god we are in NATO. 🇱🇻🇺🇦
Finland and Sweden joining NATO is also a huge benefit to the security of the Baltic states. Finland's high readiness and capacity for rapidly fielding a large number of troops in close proximity to the Baltics could be an additional source of reinforcement, not to mention forcing Russia to dedicate a large portion of forces to defend its massive border with Finland. Sweden's control of Gotland basically locks down NATO's control of the Baltic Sea, improving the security of the naval route to the Baltics in the event of a Russian push from Belarus to Kaliningrad managing to cutoff the land route of reinforcement to the rest of Europe. And the joining of Finland and Sweden adds hundreds of modern and capable combat aircraft and several airbases in range to support the defense of the Baltic states.
Absolutely spot-on correct. By Sweden and Finland both joining the NATO alliance. Such is a Big "Force Multipliacation", for peace and stability in the entire region.
Hey, greetings from Latvia! Great video! Fun fact - our former foreign minister Artis Pabriks is also a today's defence minister which you mentioned several times.
At this point, does anyone doubt that the Baltic countries would have already been given the Ukraine treatment were it not for their membership in NATO?
@@TechnoMinarchist Even Ukraine join NATO everything goes normal every day. Only if Kremlin can calm their tits😂 RU still launch attack anyway because they just feeling insecure of their border lol.(because in they head they still see the west as enemy😂)
@@TechnoMinarchist That's quite a narrow point of view. Russian meddling with Ukraine had everything to do with the Black Sea Fleet and so the 2014's anexation of Crimea in order to the "motherland" being given a very important expansion military port (there's no arguments that can sustain a deffensive posture with such aggression); moreover, Putin's regime sought to have ukrain's civilian support for their special military opperation, as they would, once more expand and profit from ukrain's fertile grounds (mainly grain), and they got a warmer welcome than they thought. The West, at least for once, is the one that be looking straight to dated imperialistist and expansionist russian practices rather than the opposite. I run kind of tired of "poor russia is fighting for it's existence" advocates and tell Russia out loud to keep their ground were they stand or life on earth as we see it can become rather complicated, as most would fight an already injured (by ukrain an western weapons) red army rather to live under their way of life. Respect if you want to be respected, and russians become invadors far from the innocent role they've been playing since the downfall or coup against Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (at a political and military level, Russian people is sadly brainwashed by their government, but I have nothing against them at all. - if you'd argue westerns societies brainwashes their populations, so make it 30x worst within countries like the forementioned Russia, China, and North Korea, just for starters)
@@pedromiguelalmeida4446 I'm not picking any sides here. Both Russia and NATO have been meddling in Ukraine for years. This whole conflict is both sides fault.
im a latvian, i have had russian-latvian coworkers here in latvia in my 30 years of life, none of them would like to live in russia, and what they say, they would stand up against russia, because they dont want to live under a dictatorship.
@@Swarmah Nobody want to live under the boots of a dictatorship. The Baltic states WILL fight for their survival. Several NATO detachements from member states have been sent to the baltic states for there defence. We can only hope that guarding is enough, so the european family were the Baltic states are a part of can live in peace and harmony.
@@Argosh Latvia's ethnic Russians did not "leave Russia" . Latvia had been part of Russia for most of the last 300 years and a huge number of Russian lived there. When the USSR collapsed they were just left behind there.
Loved this and your other 2 videos on the other Baltic countries! I spent some time in Latvia and Lithuania for training exercises in 2013-2015 and it's nice to see how they've progressed since then. In 2015, LTU's doctrine was mainly to conduct insurgency ops, as they recognized that they were just another speed bump against Russian armor. One trait I quickly realized they utilize is resourcefulness. While we tend to throw money at a problem until something sticks, they (lacking that $$$) tend to find cost-effective solutions instead, of which you provided various examples of in your videos. Thanks again!
Great analytics mate. As an Latvian citizen it was pleasure to me to watch some analytics. Best words to describe the situation right now is to say that Ukraine had 8 years to prepare for Russian attack - and they are doing pretty well. We had 30 years to prepare, if they come, we will show them what hell looks like, when every window, every pothole, every tree is a death sign to occupant.
Counter-battery radar is everything when they decide to stand back 15km and just shell the windows, potholes, and trees. You need to be able to find those artillery batteries fast and shoot back or its dead city time. NATO F35s can help prevent that.
Good too see your Universal Cammo Pattern stood out as much in Latvia as it did everywhere else. The Latvians were probably like don’t worry guys the Russians will get the men in UCP before any of us are hit.
17:54 Thank you for covering Latvia, Cappy, but there is no "deep cultural heritage and background with russia" in Latvia. Not unless you count occupations, deportations and russifications as cultural connections and heritage.
@@MrCrazyDuck47 That hardly constitutes cultural connections and heritage. Would you say far-flung Siberian tribes, whose languages and traditions couldn't be further from that of Russians, are also culturally tied to Russia because their only choice for higher education is russian universities? Large nations certainly leave cultural imprints on neighbouring states, but those aren't necessarily borne out of some kind of kinship, take everyone surrounding China, for example.
@@MrCrazyDuck47 Just because they studied in Russian universities doesn't mean they formed a cultural basis alongside the Russians. Latvia has its own culture that has more ties with Germany and Lithuania-Poland than it does Russia due to first and foremost the Germans that constituted a large part of Latvia's, formerly Livonia's, upper societal echelon, and due to Latvia being a subject to Germany (via the Livonian Order, itself a branch of the Teutonic Order) and later the Lithuanian-Polish state. Latvia was only subject to Russia for 200-ish years, and during those 200 years the only influence the Russians left on Latvians was endless attempts at Russification which were not featured by any of the other overlords Latvia had. Fortunately, the most those Russification attempts got us was Russian slang turned into vernacular.
Very good video Chris Cappy. While most of your videos focus on war fighting capability for your audience, it is your very good description of how Russia has increased investments (by oligarchs) and how a Russian language media company in Latvia (that sounds like Fox News), pushes pro-Russia propaganda, while also harshly criticizing the Latvian government, and your linkage (or showing sources you read), that makes this video particularly good and helpful to understanding how Russia could be laying the groundwork to take back control of Latvia. I also like how you discussed Latvia's vulnerability to Russian interference, risk of being a victim of Russian hybrid warfare, and the risk of it being compromised by its large Russian speaking population (that Putin may use as an excuse to invade to "protect" them) and how Russia uses investments and non-stop propaganda to the Russian speaking Latvians to influence how the citizens of Latvia may respond to a possible invasion (or "special military operation") that Putin may try in order to wrest control of Latvia as he did in Crimea and Donbas. .
The little British recon tank has a 30mm auto cannon, not 105mm. Good gun, but no 105. They've been fully refurbished and updated with new comms and sights for Latvia. Excellent low ground pressure for boggy ground. Whilst useful and cost effective, I wonder if they're also a place card holder for better kit being thought about/sorted out right now, that won't get into theatre till 5-10 years from now. Australia did that with these ancient US landing ships they bought 2nd hand, which are now being replaced by 2 wiz bang helo carriers .... same logistics slot in national defence, wildly different performance.
As a Russian Latvian, I can sign off on almost everything Chris said here. I was raised as a Russian in Latvia, I spoke Russian, only. Went to a Russian PUBLIC school. Yes there such insanities there. There were back in 2010 anyway. Last I heard my friends study in Latvian now. Keep in Mind there is only one national language in Latvia, it is Latvian. And in general I was a Russian, just without the Russian passport. Russian news channels were a norm and well the dislike for the Latvian governent was and still is, high in our house. I lived in Ireland for the last 12 years and it took years on Integartion to understand how backwards the whole situation is in Latvia. Yes the news channels are just blatant propaganda in Latvia. I am glad they banned them. If I am honest this should have been done in 2014. My gandmother was such a loveley lady before all of this Russian nonsence starting from 2014. Untill they have turned the Russian news down she was like a vicious hound. Very angry, spitefull and agressive. She is much better now that they turned it off. You can actually talk to her. It's easy to say that Latvia doesent respect free speech and such. However, 1/3of the population is just programmed to hate, violently at that. I doubt you guys in US would let a chineese state owned newschannel programm 1/3 of the US citizens to hate America and all of her values. And many many russians in Latvia are very pro Putin. At least the ones I know. Even in my family only me and my sister are really agains the war and putin at large. And we are the last generation in our family. My family moved to Irleand in 2010. Me and my sister are probably agains Russia and most of what happens in Ukraine only because we integrated well into Ireland. Unlike our parents. God only knows how we would see this if we stayed in Latvia. With all the russian propaganda and the Russian influence. It is like there is 2 societies there. Two separate people that dont intermingle at all. Even writing this now it seems crazy. Thinking about it now its pretty scary.
"I doubt you guys in US would let a chineese state owned newschannel programm 1/3 of the US citizens to hate America and all of her values." Oh, my sweet summer child...
U r just another sheep of nato now. You really think nato is great, Assange is gonna face death in usa for exposing, nato troops killing civilians and children. You say Russian army do this, but you don't have evidence, meanwhile there is video available of nato troops doing point blank shooting on children
Banning Propaganda doesn't make it better. It shows how much a democratic Society can't handle mutlipel Sources. Propaganda needs to be disproved and mocked in Public.Btw I love Democracy, it's great. Do you love love Democracy or are you Evil.
Yes, it's almost like it's a crazy, mad design by someone who wanted to populate the region with different people in order to maintain political order through ethnic chaos. Saddest part it's not just Latvia but every bit of Russian Empire. From Baltic to Black Sea. From Kaukaz to Kamchatka. P.S Is your sister single?
Chris, the U.S. does have a federally funded military training system in American high schools. It's called Jr.ROTC. I took NJROTC. The Navy had us 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year, for three years. That's a lot of training. Selected students went to a "contest" at the Naval Training Center which was a reduced boot camp. Hell, we had the Blue Jackets Manual memorized, knew how to wear the uniforms, all shot expert at the range, and most importantly we had the military mindset. We could have gone directly from high school to the Navy as a 3rd class petty officer with no boot camp. We could have gone on to NROTC in college. Four years tuition free college in exchange for 3 years active duty and 7 years in the reserve. Millions of kids are trained every year and would be more effective than an 18-year-old off the street and sent through boot camp. Your country has volunteer youngsters trained and ready to go to A School.
I am from Latvia and i went (and am still going) to the high school defence education program. I can tell you it is nothing like the stuff you mentioned. It is kind of an experimental program that is only in some schools and isn't even obligatory (i think it will be by 2024). The lessions happen once a week for 4 hours, it is quite basic stuff like marching, cartography, first aid, shooting with metal bb's, etc. This summer i went to their boot camp for 10 days, there we got to shoot actual rifles, make camouflage etc.
@@davidgoodnow269 your programme sounds way more serious. We didnt even get uniforms and shot only twice, with metal airsoft, but well, the program is still half baked and is meant to be implementable in all schools
@@davidgoodnow269 i think that is rather impossible. Our education system is already poor and does not have such resources. Maybe a single, rich school could do it but Latvia has 650+ schools of which many are really small and have under 100 students total. Children that are interested in this can just become scouts.
Morally - We are. To be quiet honest you'd be surprised how much Latvian National Guard and Armed Forcds (NBS) has Improved over the years, and during these months since the invasion, I got to know that atleast 2500 people joined National Guard in the heartbeat. Hell yeah we are.
pro western? You could be, but the west is just lgbt people and imigrants. Utleast i can honnor russia because they dont want any influence from lgbt people or geyrope
The Kremlin in its warped way realises that base population is power, not empty SqKm & partly dismantled tank parks. In 1900 the Russian Empire’s population (inc Poland, Ukraine & Baltic states) was 125m and the USA’s was 76m people. The Tsars wanted a Russia economically modelled on the USA wrt developing their great open spaces in Siberia like the mid-West of America. This was something realised after Russia had sold the Alaskan territory and given up on expanding to the Eastern Pacific rim (US West Coast) as there weren’t enough Russian’s wanting to go there. Probably because going East it was all pain and no political freedom gain, as was the case if you voyaged West from Warsaw to Wyoming. It was self-motivation that drove the US expansion not imperial decree. In 1989 the USSR had 280m people (Russian Federation was half at 140m) and the USA 245m people. By 2021 the Russian Federation’s population has flattened out at 144m while the US has continued to expand to 331m people Although the US growth is a foundation for the USA’s economic and military power, all are also an expression of good governance. Russia may have it backward again. You don’t gain that kind of power base by kidnapping your neighbours and taking away their free will.
Love the work, digging the smart-ass Army humour. As a Canadian and exArmy, how about a video on Natos deployments in each of the Baltic States?? A plans and preparation video? I know you've mentioned before that keeping a land connection would be vital for resupply as we would not like a repeat of the WW2 German army.
14:27 I actually met one of these Canadian soldiers at a bar in Riga. Pretty chill dude. We joked about Russian invasion as if it werent such a big deal. I wonder how he is doing and what he is thinking about the situation today
No shit end of EBOLC we had a Latvian officer who was just mag and belt dumping a 249. He always requested the 249 during FTXs. Mf was a platoon leader at one point carrying a 249 still
It would have been instructive for you to recount what happened the last time Russia invaded Latvia. In 1940, Russia invaded the Baltic states and immediately started a program of mass murder and deportations, just as they are now doing in Ukraine. Those who were not murdered immediately, were sent to the Gulag or Siberia; the total number of victims is estimated in the low millions. When the Germans invaded the Baltics in 1941 on their way to Moscow, they were welcomed as liberators, and Balts flocked to join the Wehrmacht to fight the Russians. When WWII officially ended in 1945, numerous Baltic people remained in the forests and continued a guerilla war until the last of them were captured and sent to Siberia or shot in the 1950's. In parallel with this, the Russians continued with a replacement strategy in which Russians were relocated to the Baltic states, and native Balts were sent to the Gulag. This continued until the fall of the Soviet Union. These actions account for the high proportion of Russian sympathizers in the Baltic states today. Nobody in the Baltic states forgets this, and this is why the native Balts are so highly motivated to oppose Russian aggression.
all lies except your admission that Latvia needs denazification asap. Not to worry, I am latvian and as soon as the time comes ill be ready for people like you :)
As a latvian, I wanted to add that our people did not want to fight. We were forced by russians, then germans, then russians again and now russians again. Originally, we were agnostic people living off the forest until vikings forced trade and germanics religion on us. We were the last region in Europe to adapt the christian religion, by force.
So you were occupied by Germany and germans were catching jews and sending them to concentration camps yet you hold absolutely no grudge against them. Interesting. Brain washing is outstanding
Maybe when Russia and Belarus hold exercises on the Latvian border, Latvia, at least in computer simulation style, practices preparatory evacuation of non-combatants. Like working with EU countries and their hotels and Air B&B's, moving people out on planes, boats, buses, and trains and bringing NATO troops, intelligence agents, and supplies in. Maybe there is a lottery for government supported "vacations" just to try out some of the logistics at small scale so lessons are learned beforehand. And remember, get out of any part of a city that does not have a good bunker. Health care goes underground.
35% it's more you can see it day to day life.. walking on streets or just being in a bigger city you hear Russian speaking people(in Rīga you can see and hear more Russian speaking people then Latvian at least in the center). they don't start to talk with you in Latvian but they begin in Russian and it personally annoys me. I get those who can't speak Latvian, cause they just traveled or moved in recently, but when you have lived for most of your life in Latvia and still won't learn a thing.
In Kengarags we speak Kengaragian XD TBH I'm one of those dudes who speaks Russian with people after a generic "labdien". I didn't spend my whole life here but with my 6th year living in Riga I have fewer and fewer good excuses for not speaking the language. Truth is the thing is damn hard if you have no use for the language in your daily life. I spent close to 1.5 years in Latvian language courses and still my knowledge is laughable. I have no Latvian friends, there is no Latvian language content I might be interested in. The quality of teaching materials is shit, the courses are mostly waste of time. At most they teach you how to pass the state exam which I did with flying colours. My wife even passed B2, still she can't really speak. It's your right to be annoyed. But in my experience in Russia, the types who complain that an Uzbek street cleaner doesn't speak perfect Russian, are usually the biggest dickheads themselves. Have a little sympathy.
Thanks for the informative video! Looking at this from Estonian perspective and seeing what is happening in Ukraine, I think we need two things. We need to be building reserves so that we would be able to sustain a fight that will not last a few weeks, but that could take months or even years. This means conscription and I think Latvia should bring this back as soon as possible. The second thing we need is a larger force to immediately counter any invasion. We cannot afford to trade territory as a strategic defence - we need to stop them at the border. For this the current NATO allies contingent needs to be three to four times larger than it currently is. We also need division level capabilities in each country. In the Estonian war of liberation, Estonia was able to defeat Russia by fielding a force of some 100 000 men. We must be prepared to do that again if necessary.
It always baffles me that ethnic minorities in one country want the country they favor to move to them, rather than them moving to the country they favor.
I couldnt believe that THE us youtube military grunt would cover the lithiuanian military, even less i could believ my luck that with the latvians now all three baltic states were covered 💪🏼🇪🇺🇺🇲
16:12 Honestly there seems to be evidences showing that when the USSR collapsed and released states to become independent, it voluntarily gave away some strategic territories to those new states which contained high rates of ethnic Russian population, notably Crimea and Kaliningrad which they proposed giving back to Germany
@16:50 "the ban on Russian media on 6 of June", but the actual the bans started on 3rd of March, then on 5th of June court ruled this ban unlawful, so the ban was lifted, and then on 6th of June this law was passed allowing the ban.
@@GiantJanus ohhh. I never caught on to that. Theres another channel i watch that i think changes 3/4 of their videos titles and i never got why. Makes sense tho
@20:00 "While Latvia this time finds itself on the safe side" - There are not safe sides, Ukraine believed in USA promises about safety and joining NATO and look where they are now
Hi there from Latvia! Some comments about content. Economics. We already have cut off export to Russia and their valuables transit. Yes, it hurts, but it's not game changer. And we have detained russian founds in banks and shares in company's and real estates. Military equipment. You have been in Latvia and saw, how densely forested, swampy and sandy Latvia can be. You have seen have useless stuck Abram can be. Latvia is not open field like Ukraine and is not useful for tank battles. Patria Latvia. This is new combat vehicle in cooperation with Finland. It is made and repaired in Latvia. It will help with mobility a lot. Personnel. Example there are border guards that is not part of military, but has military training, are on the spot and can help defend country. Freedom of speech. It is one thing to say your opinion and another to ask forcefully change government or make genocide against some group. It is thin line, but it is necessary to do, because some people are so stupid and easily influenced, they listen only one, russian side and don't wan to hear other side. And after hearing that propaganda they made hate crime against people, that walking around with Ukrainian flag. I'm here on the streets, I see what consequences is to propaganda. These people justifies their action's with propaganda.
If I remember right, Latvia is only Baltic state that doesn't have draft. So the army is extremely small and don't have enough reservists. They heavily rely on paramilitary militia, but I have no idea how good it is trained. Estonia and Lithuania are in much better shape
@@taurenis , let's see if I understood him correctly: 1. Latvia is preparing mostly for a hybrid war and not Ukraine style massive invasion. Before 2014 I would agree with this. Now I am not sure. Russians have shown they are completely unpredictable. 2. Latvians have chosen to invest heavily in one mechanized brigade and they think it will be enough for a hybrid war. West initial response to Russian invasion to Ukraine was slow and very careful. We cannot predict what will be NATO's response in case of massive invasion to Latvia. So we can expect Latvian army, Zemessardze and multinational NATO battalion defend the country on their own for at least week or more. 3. Latvian military doctrine is based now on the total defense. I am not sure how can you have total defense doctrine without a lot of reserves or at least well trained territorial defense. For some reason Chris didn't mention Zemessardze at all and concentrated on the regular army. I have no idea how good Zemessardze is trained. I could find any sources in either English or Russian about this subject.
As a complete rando I hereby endorse Chris Cappy as an ambassadorial representative of the United States and it's people, With this endorsement I call upon the Federal government to grant funding to Private Cappy as compensation and assistance so that he can carry on performing his self assigned duties. He does a pretty good of making the US look not just good but great so it would be money well spent backing him. If you don't ask then you don't get all, So fingers crossed.
To be honest. When I was in we trained with Austin SWAT and we were walking around the streets with sim rounds. It was weird. The 2 nd amendment calls for a well regulated militia for the security of the free state.
I'm half-Latvian half-Russian born in Daugavpils. The most Russian speaking and most pro-Kremlin town in Latvia. If Putin decides to escalate, basically we are the target.
@@Senaleb well, most of them you wouldn't guess since they pledge their loyalties loud and open. But yes, there is still a quite a layer of people in-between who would bring us much surprises.
After your positive videos about Lithuania and Estonia, I was hoping for something more uplifting about Latvia as well, especially as you were based there for a while. Your analysis points to Latvia being vulnerable to Russian hybrid attacks more so than its Baltic neighbours. While it might be the case that Estonia and Lithuania have done some things very well, any differences between us are minuscule. Sadly, Latvia is quite bad at PR, which is unfortunate, as it leads to the kinds of conclusions you draw here, which in turn contributes to the types of hybrid operations against Latvia you yourself describe. (Maybe it is after all a well-executed PSYOP?) Just a few quick examples of misguided statements (based on misconceptions or outdated info): 1) rus speaking population in Latvia is NOT 36%, it is actually 24% (similarly to Estonia). 2) Latvia is NOT reliant on exports to rus (yes, they are next door, so you will always find some economic activity). But consider that Latvia exports 4x as much to Lithuania, and 2x as much to Estonia. Other top 10 export partners are all in the EU and the US. There is a clear export market for Latvia, and it is NOT rus. With new sanctions in place, you’ll see rus’s small number falling even further. 3) The analysis of Latvia being vulnerable to some separatist movement or other form of military destabilisation from within is absurd and has been debunked numerous times before. 4) Latvian non-resident deposits made up just 6% in 2020 (and might be even lower in 2022) and NOT 40%. Due to the recognition of vulnerabilities in its banking, massive financial reforms took place over the past years. Latvia demolished its thriving financial sector and set aside its ambition of being a financial hub (such as Switzerland, London, Cyprus, or Luxembourg) and has since become one of the most financially in-order countries in the EU. 5) Latvia has NO deep cultural heritage and background with rus(!), at least no more than any other of the countries in our region that are rus’s neighbours, e.g. Estonia, Finland, Lithuania. rus for centuries has been the greatest threat to Latvian people, but that in no way represents a close relationship. 6) It needs to be reminded, Latvia, like the other Baltic states, was in fact occupied by rus for 50 years in the 20th century and through targeted immigration and russification programs the Latvian population was suppressed and to this day is living with the consequences of this. 7) Due to the above, Latvia has a considerable rus-speaking population and a part of that population is living in rus’s information space. When you speak of rus finding themselves lost outside their homeland, this might be true, but the reunification is not what rus leaders see in their wet dreams, but instead can only happen by these people hopping on a train to rus. 8) When you speak of some statistics, the rus-speaking and non-loyal part of the population will mess up many statistics, but make no mistake, the overwhelming majority of Latvians are completely and absolutely very deeply European and pro-EU, pro-NATO; there is no question of choosing rus or the West - we are the West! I could go on, but you get my point. Latvia needs to be better at getting its message across and we all should be more careful not to become part of rus’s info operations.
hey the Russian citizens trapped outside their country was him playing devil's advocate for a moment. he literally says "understand it from their (Russia's) perspective."
Well, your friends & allies surely hope you're right. But better to consider & prepare for the possibility Chris Cappy's analysis is more astute than you think, than assume 'Oh those Russian speaking Guys are OK', then find out they aren't. Ukraine & ex-Yugoslavia maybe should be saying to you 'prevention's better than cure'.
You sound like a baby looking for positive news. The best way for Latvian security is for Russia to become a Liberal democracy or for America to annex the Baltics or an EU federation/supersate that gets along well and speaks English.
Well put info: Here are my 2 cents worth or questions: 1. As a wiseman once put: would Nato countries put their capital under the threat of Russia if 3 small Baltic states are threatened in order to preserve the independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia? By looking at how Germans are acting, it does not appear, at least, there is going to be a united front. 2. How hard or easy to defend Baltic states? At what costs? Difficult to answer, but given their geographical location, Russia does have more benefit of distance. Another war would cost Nato billions of dollars or Euros. Not sure what benefits it brings to defend those countries. The only benefit would be ‘no wars in my soil’. ie they will become the battlefield reducing direct destruction in other territories. 3. Do they have means to self defend themselves? Clearly no. Given their size iof population and economy or industrial output, very unlikely. However not all is lost if they decide to work together. If those three countries for a common Defence pact, ie shared military budget and personnel, there might be a way. They will be population of just under 6m. If they can mobilise 10%, that would be 600k troops. It is much bigger apple to bite than any single country out of three. Then with the size (regular military), they can have 1-2 mechanised division with proper high value assets like MBT, some Anti-air capabilities and have much stronger purchasing power as well. Each country may not be able to afford sizeable airforce but combined, they maybe able to afford some light fighter planes. They may also expand Estonia’s K9 artillery and have more under the umbrella. Estonia got a great deal buying a second hand K9, with more numbers, they should be able to get more. Alternatively, they can get cheaper K55A1 or A2s second hand which are being replaced in Korea (licensed production of M109 but much more modernised using K9 technology). Korea operates 1,500 of these and retiring some of them soon as they get new K9A2. Unfortunately their numerical and financial constraints will always be there but by combining their military and its assets, they will have at least some chance of withstanding any invasion until the Nato forces arrive. It will be a tough job to defend those 3 countries. Huge respect for those working hard to defend it.
NATO will have no others choice as they are NATO territory and as such articles 5 will apply and for Ukraine they are not a NATO territory and this is a huge factor but as an allied they are receiving weapons and howitzer and tons and tons of ammunition including manpad that destroy main battles tanks (MBT). They had to show their country were going to defend itself first for Ukraine 🇺🇦 the reminder is history and now they are getting more and more weapons and heavy artillery and air defense missiles.
There is no comparison between state sponsored defense courses in America vs Latvia. Latvia is under direct threat, we aren't under direct threat from anything.
I like your videos because you always proceed with thoughtful opinions and present the evidence you’re drawing from. I agree with you that democracy’s strength is the debate of ideas (also its great Achilles’ heel). Ultimately, however, free speech relates to citizens and not antagonistic states pumping anti-state propaganda into a country. So, I don’t think Latvia banning Russia state media propaganda is anti-democratic - Latvia isn’t silencing its own citizens. I wish more countries would take a more proactive approach to protect their citizens from misinformation and disinformation like Latvia does. Keep in mind too that when people make these ‘democracy are bastions of free speech’ declarations they are often being fast and lose with their definitions, often for rhetorical and misleading purposes. So, we need to be critical when people make those kinds of broad statements. Oftentimes, people making those statements are making the disingenuous comparison to authoritarian or totalitarian states who silenced their own citizens and independent and differing voices and projecting that process on to democratic societies. It’s a straw man argument. Details matter. I don’t consider a society trying to get a handle on misinformation, disinformation, antagonistic state actors, propaganda, manipulation, and misleading media as inherently negative. It can be necessary to protect the truth and allow citizens to access differing opinions.
I’m Russian Latvian, now living in USA. I hate Putins aggression and sending money to Ukraine. My mother lives in Latvia and mostly supports this war. Russian propaganda is pure Himmler’s type propaganda on steroids. This “product” switching off logic and critical thinking forever. Besides, all Latvian-Russians can move to Russia, but they don’t want to live in pseudo states like DNR or LNR. (Donetsk/Luhansk peoples republics) they can’t even define what “Russian Way/World” . Great video. Big fan .
05:27 was a pleasant surprise to me - I was actually there (in Ādaži, 24.10.2010). Crazy to think that we have probably actually met. Do you have more pictures from that small event/showcase?
Well you know…. Russia said that they destroyed whole Ukraine airforce like… 1-10 times already and still some how there is ukraine airforce flying everywhere
For those of you who haven't heard nor been to the Corner House (Stūra Māja) and the Museum of the Occupation, it's an eye opener and quite tragic to what happened to the Latvian people under Soviet rule. Incredibly dark. I, too, was mobilized there in 2017. While in several convoys throughout the suburbs and rural areas of Latvia, we were waved at, given thumbs up more than the middle finger, the latter which happened for obvious reasons: to Chris' point, there are Latvian Russia sympathizers who believe that life was better under the Soviet Union and want it to be that way again. Sadly, I met a few while in Riga. However, I do believe that our military presence and support does help the Latvian armed forces as well as encourage a less obscure outlook and morale for the population. Before, after, and to this day I am under the impression that Latvians born after the fall of the Soviet Union, and even some who watched it fall, will fight tooth and nail to protect their land. As always, great presentations, Chris!
Thank you for your service in helping defend my country. Those who give middle fingers and reminisce of the Soviet Union are mostly ethnic Russians who mostly listened to Russian state tv.
I'd be interested to see your analysis of the Moldovian military. They're a tiny, underfunded, obsoletly equipped force. What do you think they should do to improve their chances to survive an attack from the Russian battalions in Transnitria
Intetesring comment. Being that Moldova was originally part of Romania, prior to 1940. It probably would be best if Moldova would rejoin Romania and then they would be under the NATO protective blanket.
@@MrHrKaidoOjamaaVKJV Before suggesting nonsense read the EU statutes, Moldova has a breakaway region, it will never be allowed. And Moldova has no interest in that.
If this happens, I really hope that we will help them. Russians can try their tourist tactics or something, it doesn't matter, we have to help in full NATO scale in such case, there must be some red line.
Was working and lived in Latvia around 12 years ago. The people I was close with and spoke about their situation, they were really concerned about the one third of Russian ethnics. At that time they expected already some actions of R to bring back Latvia to the Russen Federation (soviets). Imho, it is another kind of Ukraine.
Indeed it is another kind of Ukraine. i am from Latvia and I can tell you right now that hundreds of thousands of people are not going to be fighting alongside the west if the situation escalates, including myself. It's time to liberate the country from the west.
I really wish I could of served over in Latvia 🇱🇻 with the Canadian Forces. I'm Canadian but my family is Latvian. My grandfather had to flee Latvia in WW2 after the Soviets were invading for a second time. I got injured in Afghanistan so had to retire early. Would of been nice to serve 2 countries at once that were very close to me.
@@Hamsteak Same here. Tanker chin from my ARVL, 3b as my boys from TF1-06 were going over. I cry like a baby every Aug. You did your time, you did good. Anything else will eat you up. Take it easy Brother...
Call it a hunch, but I suspect your granddaddy had to run away in 1945 (together with the Germans) because he was a Nazi collaborator. In order for him to be able to come to Canada, he would have to be in the American or Canadian occupation zone in the West. Notably, the Germans in 1945, when retreating, didn't take along any locals unless those locals WORKED for them. Incidentally, in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania the largest Nazi employers for the locals were Waffen SS and Schutzmannschaft. And we all know all of the wonderful things those two organizations did for the people (especially the Jews and the Belorussians) of Eastern Europe ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Auxiliary_Police )
8:34 it's not completely analogous but we have JROTC and ROTC for high school and colleges in the US. different schools in a district get different branches, but the goal is to be able to enlist as an officer. i had marine corps and they didn't go easy on us and it was honestly one of my favorite classes. when we had a big meetup day i got the impression some of the other branches might not have had as 'serious' as an experience but the challenge meant anyone who wanted to stay in had to work for it. uniforms had to be ironed and were inspected once a week; i found it really valuable to be able to still learn those lessons without needing to be shipped off to boot
Marchinh through suburban strerts? I drived through central Rovaniemi on a Ktm LC4 400 with rk 62 on my back, full mag of blanks. It was December, so I had spike tires. The sparks from pebblestone streets were priceless. Oh the memories from those 6 months of conscription service.
One interesting thing about Canada stationing troops in Latvia is that I remember at the start Russia was trying to turn Latvians against the Canadians. Russia was pushing how we accept gay marriage and stuff along that line (What the Russian government thinks is bad). I swear I remember that being covered by media here in Canada.
This is a key Commies strategy to destroy us!!! The truth is all that LGBTQ/woke stuff is actually secretly being pushed onto the West by Kremlin (and their assets in the West) to destroy Traditional, Moral, Catholic structure the family unit. Simultaneously their propaganda outfits make a bigger deal out of it than it really is and they make themselves out to be the only savior state standing up for Christian types, it’s all phony but many don’t do their homework and think INFOWARZ is real info(Kremlin outfit) so deceptive downright Satanic. “For example, the alleged religious relaxation is a spectacle produced and managed by the KGB and the high priests of the church are KGB agents assigned to fulfill Communist strategy.” “ As part of the programme to destroy religion from within, the KGB, in the late 1950s, started sending dedicated young Communists to ecclesiastical academies and seminaries to train them as future church leaders.” - The Perestroika Deceptio by A. Golitsyn
As someone living in Latvia i must say Anti EU, Anti Nato, Anty allys propaganda campaigns s everyday reality. And usage of LGBT, and pointing out what far left side activists are saying, is like, regular thing.
As a Latvian, I don't think turning Latvians against Canadians can be possible, since all time favorite Latvian president came from Canada. I also don't think that Latvians care that much about what lgbt people do to each other, let them do it as long as it don't bothering them
The words "Total Defence" are very familiar to me as a Singaporean. I wonder if they got it from us. 6 prongs: 1. Psychological: deals with mentality 2. Social: we're multi-ethnic with Chinese majority (but not necessarily affiliated with the PRC) and a societal fabric needs to be woven 3. Economic: various ways to safeguard our economy 4. Civil: if SHTF, our police, firemen and medics would have to respond 5. Military: all males of statutory age have to serve for 2 years by law. We continue in camp training every year for at least 10 years a few weeks at a time. 6. Internet (this is new to me) If the Latvians are following this similar approach to total defence, I hope they have enough time to implement it properly. I think our own success is mixed. I think we can do better in the psychogical and social spheres.
Hey spare parts army thanks for watching, would you be cool with your country doing a total defense strategy? Big thanks to Ridge for sending me this wallet and supporting the channel! ridge.com/TASKANDPURPOSE use code: TASK for 10% off
I will fight for Latvia and I'll do from within Russia.
I will fight for, and with my brothers and sisters.
I live in Finland but I would fight for Germany because I'm from there.
At the same time Lithuania banned sanctioned imports for Russia... Between Russia and Russia. :D Kaliningrad is separated from Russia by Lithuania,and land-blocked right now.
9:10 .. "Walking the suburban streets with guns, something we could never do in the USA" - ?? Umm.. did you not see them in Boston.. did you not see them in New Orleans durning Katrina- going door to door and taking everyone's guns away, like there is no Second Amendment. It's already been shown very clearly, when something happens, the US government does not care about your rights.
The total war concept was taken in yugoslavia. In case of an invasion, everyone and their grandma was supposed to have a firearm, and because we don't have enough Frontline army to resist an occupation, the idea was to attrition them down heavily, whilst small professional army starts making gains. The idea is to discourage invasion due to super high costs
The concept of total war has been around much longer than that lol
@@bruderschweigen6889 they didn’t say it originated in Yugoslavia.
Switzerland had the same concept. Might still.
it's not a bad idea honestly, sometimes I wish the US would involve civilians a little more in what the military is like
Yugoslav army really didn't have enough for frontline army, they only had more then 2.500 tanks, around 1500 arm. vehicles, more then 2.000 high caliber artillery pieces, more then 350 planes and...i forgot how many helicopters, around 80 ships.
My brothers Latvians, love from Lithuania
Do you think any European nations besides the uk and Poland will go to war with Russia if they invade the Baltics? I personally don't think they would but I'm curious 🤔
Laba diena, Braļukai
@@bruderschweigen6889 NATO article 5
It's a must
Your brothers in Poland, not in Latvia
@@artemijszodziks3666 im lithuanian i know what are my language brothers, with these comments your'e making your'e polish comrades to be ashamed.
Kad tau skruzdės byrka apmyžtų
A five or six years ago police officer from USA visiting Latvia asked me - how would I characterize Latvians. To which I said - we are like bees. We are peaceful, hard working and quite introvert people who minds their own business, but when the time comes and someone wants to mess with us - may the Lord have mercy on their souls.
As a Latvian this is quite interesting. One comment about Russian's being 'stuck' in Latvia, they are free to return to Russia, and solely decide not to.
Estonian here. They have those "grey passports" wich they don't wanna exchange for estonian passport. Cause they can cross a border to come back to sell illegal ciggarettes and hate estonians again. And ofc. They dont wanna go to russia because it's way better to live in estonia economically. So basically they are tools of russia.
Round up the loudest 50 Russian supporters and send them off to Russia. It will shut up the rest of them
As a Russian-Latvian, now living in USA. This statement is 100% correct. I have no idea how living in Latvia and supporting Putins aggression can be stored peacefully in their heads.
@@MrZaleks Welcome! I hope you see Alaska sometime 👍
I wonder why?.. lol
To clarify about the training exercises in Riga:
The defence ministry _did not_ apologise about the exercises being held, given that they were mostly supported by the population. What they _did_ apologise for was not informing everyone well enough about them.
Edit: I should mention that they will also continue to hold such exercises annually (and I fully support that).
In France we have the military training among civilians too. Especially now because of the threat to our eastern allies.
Funny how it’s shocking to Americans. In the news they showed confused American tourists in the middle of one of our exercises, must have been quite the vacation memory lol.
There was nothing to apologize for. There were few local russians, that ignored the warning about training and loud noises and that got used by pro-Rus outlets to paint it black.
@@Hodoss Americans never saw a tank with so many reverse gears. Neither did any of us. That is all. Go and try not to put Russia down some more.
Indeed nothing to apologise for.
@@maciejcygan5143 Lol that copium. I didn’t do nothing to Russia, it puts itself down spectacularly mainly by itself.
Stay strong my Baltic friends! You have support from Poland and in time of need i hope we will stand with you arm to arm against threat.
But be careful, these Poland friends always play the role of bait or traitor
@@worldsyours5441 huh? what are you talking about?
@@ukaszt3231fck that guy. I'm glad Poland is doing well and takes it's military seriously. Hope war won't happen but if it does, I'll be happy to fight should to shoulder with you guys.
Hello! I am Latvian who live in west side of Latvia - I am also member of national guard 4.brigade (Latvia military forces) and my full time job is in one of Scandinavian bank who work in Latvia.
I love your video - but there is few things what I want to mention.
1) 35% in Latvia is Russian speaking but not Russians - under your statistic 35% is Ukrainians, Belarusians, people from Central Asia and Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and also Moldova - so real number of Russians are 24% about - local Ukrainians are mainly not supporting Russia. Of course - not all Russians supporting Putin - and here coming more and more people from Russia who try find safe place for themself and they family's from Russia and Putin brutal regime.
2) CVRT - yes! But you said it's old - from 1960.g. yeah they original chasse is from that time - but UK sold as rebuild versions + totally new diesel engines + these vehicles have also included Israel made SPIKE anti-tank guided missile systems (same deadly weapon against heavy equipment like tank as U.S. Javelin).
3) What you said correct - it's about weight - how I know Latvia defense ministry was before CVRT been consider to buy tanks but - yeah - when first U.S. M1A2 Abrams came here in Latvia military training base for exercise - then they realized that Tanks lose they mobility in our soft ground + we have 65% terrain covered by deep forests - where tank is just perfect pray for even small infantry unit with simple ATM - like Carl Gustaf. So CVRT is perfect infantry support vehicle for our situation - and you are right about bridges.
3) You did not mention that Latvia have not only CVRT but also M109 artillery - 155 mm gun - and trainings are for them is work together with CVRT + drones. And Latvia together with Finland building together Patria 6x6 APC - it is a Finland project - but Latvia bought 200x Patria 6x6 - but what is the best part of this deal - Latvia are allowed with Finland produce these APC in Latvia (Cēsis town) and first time in history Latvia have military industry since 1991. - and Sweden is willing to join this project.
4) I will not continue about what other weapons and equipment we have - but our next step what is already made - we want get rid of USSR era helicopters - and we waiting our U.S. Black Hawks helicopters delivery + we been training our pilots for them already 2x years at least + next target is HIMARS and NASAMS 3 air defense systems - we also now investing in Liepāja military port - and seen we start build new large military base in somewhere Latvia - so we can bring more equipment + NATO allies and make our force's larger - so we invest in our defense more and more every year.
There is video about our military vehicles what you did not include in your video :)
th-cam.com/video/Nn6WhzF3NkY/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/uvbluOTGUes/w-d-xo.html
As a latvian infantryman in ādaži, I agree with your statements on the most part
No mention was made of Air Force and Air Defence, which would be critical in stopping Air Assault, the good news is the UA have done a good job of destroying the best of Russias Air Brigades. As a Brit, you made a wise choice of Vehicle, Ukraine has demonstrated the vulnerability of Heavy Tanks, If I was you guys, I would be planning for the worst right now Militarily and on a Civil basis looking at where you are vulnerable and who the enemies within might be.
You're funny. Your weapons are in the mail, didn't you know?
Dude I honestly admire you, but you should not write such a personal information about, especially that which are military grade.....every russian could know now and they can be really bothering, you don't want threatening homecalls or something like that 😬
@@bubakbubakovic9286 don't think he is using his real name
There is no 40% non-resident money in Latvian banks anymore. Since 2017 there was a huge change in monetary and AML policy. That number now is closer to 5%. But thank you for overview. And that is a view of veteran Latvian officer with expierence of some missions in AFG.
I like fire trucks and monster trucks
You are an Afghanistan goat killer
Experienced officer your a joke fought goat herders and lost
Jā mums tak uzlika kkādu sodu. Un aizklapēja AB
Thank you for your service Braliukas!
Man laikam reizes 5 piedāvāja to afg
Vislaik atteicos
Bet ja vajag vajag
Prieks ka esi atpakaļ
In January people started remarking on the Russian build-up in Belarus. Nobody really paid much attention. I started paying attention when it was noted that real blood was being delivered to their field hospitals. You don't deliver valuable and perishable items such as blood unless you mean business.
I read about a Ukrainian build up in the Donbass region around the same time .OSCE (An orginisation that observes stuff.Who they are I have no idea)has some interesting data about the month after, about the amount of shelling that was done.Feb 19th-24.I wasn't there so I don't know the truth
You're not the only one to notice.
Hell, it's not the real blood that notice them, it's the field hospital itself.
If it's only fighting element near the border, that can still be excused as "Military Exercise". But once a field hospital is there, it means they're ready to treat the first wave of casualties.
@@aidendow1532 The OSCE is an extremely reputable European organization that monitors conflict in Europe, and to whom both Ukraine and Russia send observers. They have been in the Donbass since 2014.
Lots of people paid attention.
a few weeks before the blood deliveries, the government in Moscow voted on changes to laws on mass graves.... the signs were clearly there.
I was in Latvia from late April to early May this year. I was there for my Navy Reserve unit and we were conducting transporting Army vehicles throughout the Baltic states and Poland. Yeah, they loved us being there and they were also hosting Ukranian families at the hotel we were staying at too. This article was pretty accurate.
If ww’s told us anything, its never just Latvia, usually Baltics gets invaded together.
Thanks a lot for posting these videos about Baltic states. There are plenty of videos East vs West, Nato vs Russia, but definitely not enough videos about smaller countries who want to keep their sovereignty, freedom and democracy and how they're achieving it.
How's Estonia as a whole?
Geopolitical thinking ignores the agency that all nations have. I agree, these smaller nations want to be left alone to decide things on their own, and sometimes joining NATO is the only way to deter a Russian invasion. Better to deal with the squabbling leaders of Europe and America than the lone modern tsar.
sovereignty lol
@@fallinginthed33p eh.... until war breaks out.
Problem with these big interconnected global alliances is that if ONE of them fuck up, EVERYONE part of the alliance has to pay for it, one way or the other.
Global entangled alliances are what made WW1 so fucking bad. If it weren't for the alliances, the war would've been exclusively between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, with the OPTION of outside aid or intervention being exactly that. Optional for anyone who wants to support one side or the other.
In northern macedonia ethnic Albanians are a constituent people with 20% of the population with the official Albanian language. Serbs and Russians in countries with a population of over 30% do not have nearly the same rights. Let someone explain to me what is that?
I did some training in Latvia recently. They have some interesting gear and they are really going hard on training. I met a few of them that immigrated to the United States, lived here for a decade or so, and the moment Russia invaded they moved back to Latvia and enlisted. Their troops are motivated to defend their country no matter the cost, and I think that mentality is a benefit. I have mad respect for the Latvians, they are ready to fight.
The sad thing is that only the old generation has this readyness to protect the country, it was just announced that mandatory military service will happen. Most young people are actually complaining and bashing the country for doing so. Many want to leave the country because of it and are huge cats about it.
@@lim592 mandatory military service is still not established but is on the verge of "being free willed, but if we choose you and you decline, you are gonna face consequences". It's a few year plan as we don't have the infrastructure for mass enlistment as well as the budget for it.
About younger generation not wanting to go to military - if you die defending your country, leaders will take a 30 second moment of silence and move on, only your family and relatives will grieve over you. Not to mention - what does our founding fathers think of the generations today? Are they really proud for what they fought for? For all it's worth, their reasoning is solid; not understanding it is typical boomer mindset when it comes to war. Somehow boomers want everyone to enlist like we have the real power... or is it just that they are wearing different shade of pink glasses?
When you are the ones whining about everything in this country, why is it suddenly so important for you to save it when "viss ir slikti, braukšu uz Īriju"? Save some face, having 2nd hand embarrassment for you.
@@ward7576 the founding fathers probably are embarrassed that they fought hard for the country so future generations have their own place, just for the new generation to cry about 6 month of military service, especially since the military service won't involve you start going to war, it's to prepare you for it. I myself as an 19yo will try and go even though I have knee and back problems.
@@ward7576 well said
Stellar vid! One thing - unlike UA which is a huge open field, Latvia is basically a huge forest ridden with swamps. Tanks are at a huge disadvantage here and it's basically a guerilla wonderland. We might not have the numbers or tech of our western allies, but we have one thing they don't - a very clear memory of what happens if we lose. Let the putinists come, we will call our local Russians, Ukranians, Jews, Belorussians, Poles and our Eesti and Lithuanian bros to stand up once more. For the first time in our history to kill a red and a nazi you'd have to put a hole in one guy!
we are safe, our roads are so terrible that all those tanks would break down lol
@@toms8812 Just like 3 days to take all of Ukraine.
After watching a few of your videos a while back, you came off as more of a comedian/arm chair solider. Now I have come to enjoy your views, your humor and how you openly admit to love USA and NATO. It make it clear that you are what you are, and you present things the way YOU see them. I like that a lot, and that is why I'm subbing to your channel. Thanks for the great contents and have a great day!
CVR's are certainly a big part of our military, but just as our neighbours, we are also investing in new IFV's.
I think it's also important to point out the CAVS joint programme that introduces the Finnish produced Patria 6x6 APC to both nations as a standardised vehicle that could cut costs whilst also providing some limited versatility. Considering the vehicle can be equipped with a 120mm howitzer and is suited for the muddy swampy terrain of Latvia, it could just as well be the perfect substitute for the lack of MBT's.
Of course the programme is quite new and whether the programme is even worthwhile is still unknown, but it appears promising as there are already 200 units on order and its said that the vehicle assembly will be in house starting from 2023.
Do you guys have the scorpion variant of cvrt ? The one with the 105mm cannon ?
@@sigspearthumb9574 nope, the only ''gun'' variant Latvia bought was Scimitar with 30mm RARDEN. So calling these things ''light tanks'' is kind of wrong by the video author, they aint no tanks no matter light or whatever else. Its just a IFV without dismount carrying capacity
@@crabyman3555 yeah definitely. The 30mm would only be of limited use against ifvs or apcs not tanks. The 105mm variant is well a bit lethal to the crew. So I’d be surprised if the Latvians had it
patria is not an IFV, it is an APC (Armored people carrier). Big difference, since it doesn't have proper weapons systems.
Paldies par atspoguļojumu, ļoti akurāts atskats par mūsu valsti!
im latvian and we dont have any heritage with russia, we hate them, we were occupied by them we will never let that repeat. Thank god we are in NATO. 🇱🇻🇺🇦
Same here from Estonia.
Destroy the bridges!
Another rabid chihuaha who admits he is mentally ill. Can't wait for the liberation to begin lmao
but nowadays we got invisible occuperation 😓😪
@Edzhjus
Very late question from a fellow latvieša: wtf is occuperation??
Finland and Sweden joining NATO is also a huge benefit to the security of the Baltic states. Finland's high readiness and capacity for rapidly fielding a large number of troops in close proximity to the Baltics could be an additional source of reinforcement, not to mention forcing Russia to dedicate a large portion of forces to defend its massive border with Finland. Sweden's control of Gotland basically locks down NATO's control of the Baltic Sea, improving the security of the naval route to the Baltics in the event of a Russian push from Belarus to Kaliningrad managing to cutoff the land route of reinforcement to the rest of Europe. And the joining of Finland and Sweden adds hundreds of modern and capable combat aircraft and several airbases in range to support the defense of the Baltic states.
Absolutely spot-on correct.
By Sweden and Finland both joining the NATO alliance. Such is a Big "Force Multipliacation", for peace and stability in the entire region.
Finland and Sweden use to have big militaries. Now they just want to liff off the USA. They need to fail.
Hey, greetings from Latvia! Great video! Fun fact - our former foreign minister Artis Pabriks is also a today's defence minister which you mentioned several times.
At this point, does anyone doubt that the Baltic countries would have already been given the Ukraine treatment were it not for their membership in NATO?
Idk. There's only issues with Ukraine because it stopped being neutral. If Ukraine actually openly joined NATO there'd be even more conflict.
@@TechnoMinarchist Even Ukraine join NATO everything goes normal every day. Only if Kremlin can calm their tits😂 RU still launch attack anyway because they just feeling insecure of their border lol.(because in they head they still see the west as enemy😂)
@@TechnoMinarchist yeah no shit Russia was invading their land since 2014. Why would they be neutral
@@TechnoMinarchist That's quite a narrow point of view. Russian meddling with Ukraine had everything to do with the Black Sea Fleet and so the 2014's anexation of Crimea in order to the "motherland" being given a very important expansion military port (there's no arguments that can sustain a deffensive posture with such aggression); moreover, Putin's regime sought to have ukrain's civilian support for their special military opperation, as they would, once more expand and profit from ukrain's fertile grounds (mainly grain), and they got a warmer welcome than they thought. The West, at least for once, is the one that be looking straight to dated imperialistist and expansionist russian practices rather than the opposite. I run kind of tired of "poor russia is fighting for it's existence" advocates and tell Russia out loud to keep their ground were they stand or life on earth as we see it can become rather complicated, as most would fight an already injured (by ukrain an western weapons) red army rather to live under their way of life. Respect if you want to be respected, and russians become invadors far from the innocent role they've been playing since the downfall or coup against Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (at a political and military level, Russian people is sadly brainwashed by their government, but I have nothing against them at all. - if you'd argue westerns societies brainwashes their populations, so make it 30x worst within countries like the forementioned Russia, China, and North Korea, just for starters)
@@pedromiguelalmeida4446 I'm not picking any sides here. Both Russia and NATO have been meddling in Ukraine for years. This whole conflict is both sides fault.
My Latvian friend and her family would definitely resist RU, and from what I hear even some of the ethnic Russians would resist as well
source: "my friend told me"
im a latvian, i have had russian-latvian coworkers here in latvia in my 30 years of life, none of them would like to live in russia, and what they say, they would stand up against russia, because they dont want to live under a dictatorship.
Is it bot chat????? Fck sounds like????
@@Swarmah Nobody want to live under the boots of a dictatorship.
The Baltic states WILL fight for their survival.
Several NATO detachements from member states have been sent to the baltic states for there defence.
We can only hope that guarding is enough, so the european family were the Baltic states are a part of can live in peace and harmony.
@@Argosh Latvia's ethnic Russians did not "leave Russia" .
Latvia had been part of Russia for most of the last 300 years and a huge number of Russian lived there. When the USSR collapsed they were just left behind there.
Loved this and your other 2 videos on the other Baltic countries! I spent some time in Latvia and Lithuania for training exercises in 2013-2015 and it's nice to see how they've progressed since then. In 2015, LTU's doctrine was mainly to conduct insurgency ops, as they recognized that they were just another speed bump against Russian armor. One trait I quickly realized they utilize is resourcefulness. While we tend to throw money at a problem until something sticks, they (lacking that $$$) tend to find cost-effective solutions instead, of which you provided various examples of in your videos. Thanks again!
We got your back 🇱🇻 from 🇺🇸 🤜🤛
Ty
Extreme gratitude to every US'ian who seconds that. I hope you're right when push comes to shove.
Great analytics mate. As an Latvian citizen it was pleasure to me to watch some analytics. Best words to describe the situation right now is to say that Ukraine had 8 years to prepare for Russian attack - and they are doing pretty well. We had 30 years to prepare, if they come, we will show them what hell looks like, when every window, every pothole, every tree is a death sign to occupant.
Узнаешь как выглядит ад, когда на тебя упадет огневой вал
Counter-battery radar is everything when they decide to stand back 15km and just shell the windows, potholes, and trees. You need to be able to find those artillery batteries fast and shoot back or its dead city time. NATO F35s can help prevent that.
Doing pretty well...? You mean 200-500 ukrainian soilders kia and 1000 casualties per day :-P
Good too see your Universal Cammo Pattern stood out as much in Latvia as it did everywhere else. The Latvians were probably like don’t worry guys the Russians will get the men in UCP before any of us are hit.
It's not even universal camo pattern
lmao this is elite. great comment. former navy myself and you nailed it lmaoooo
@@jordanholliman lol sure you are
UCP: Universally bad.
17:54 Thank you for covering Latvia, Cappy, but there is no "deep cultural heritage and background with russia" in Latvia. Not unless you count occupations, deportations and russifications as cultural connections and heritage.
Many Latvian intellectuals (inc. Young Latvians) got education in Russian universities
@@MrCrazyDuck47 Of course they did, there weren't any ethnic universities around, due to occupation and russification.
@Mārcis Bukovskis indeed, this is not the only thing. It depends whether you want to learn history or interpret it in favor of today's agenda
@@MrCrazyDuck47 That hardly constitutes cultural connections and heritage. Would you say far-flung Siberian tribes, whose languages and traditions couldn't be further from that of Russians, are also culturally tied to Russia because their only choice for higher education is russian universities? Large nations certainly leave cultural imprints on neighbouring states, but those aren't necessarily borne out of some kind of kinship, take everyone surrounding China, for example.
@@MrCrazyDuck47 Just because they studied in Russian universities doesn't mean they formed a cultural basis alongside the Russians. Latvia has its own culture that has more ties with Germany and Lithuania-Poland than it does Russia due to first and foremost the Germans that constituted a large part of Latvia's, formerly Livonia's, upper societal echelon, and due to Latvia being a subject to Germany (via the Livonian Order, itself a branch of the Teutonic Order) and later the Lithuanian-Polish state. Latvia was only subject to Russia for 200-ish years, and during those 200 years the only influence the Russians left on Latvians was endless attempts at Russification which were not featured by any of the other overlords Latvia had. Fortunately, the most those Russification attempts got us was Russian slang turned into vernacular.
Very good video Chris Cappy. While most of your videos focus on war fighting capability for your audience, it is your very good description of how Russia has increased investments (by oligarchs) and how a Russian language media company in Latvia (that sounds like Fox News), pushes pro-Russia propaganda, while also harshly criticizing the Latvian government, and your linkage (or showing sources you read), that makes this video particularly good and helpful to understanding how Russia could be laying the groundwork to take back control of Latvia. I also like how you discussed Latvia's vulnerability to Russian interference, risk of being a victim of Russian hybrid warfare, and the risk of it being compromised by its large Russian speaking population (that Putin may use as an excuse to invade to "protect" them) and how Russia uses investments and non-stop propaganda to the Russian speaking Latvians to influence how the citizens of Latvia may respond to a possible invasion (or "special military operation") that Putin may try in order to wrest control of Latvia as he did in Crimea and Donbas. .
Thanks for the insights. Your having been in country & experienced says a lot
The little British recon tank has a 30mm auto cannon, not 105mm. Good gun, but no 105. They've been fully refurbished and updated with new comms and sights for Latvia. Excellent low ground pressure for boggy ground. Whilst useful and cost effective, I wonder if they're also a place card holder for better kit being thought about/sorted out right now, that won't get into theatre till 5-10 years from now. Australia did that with these ancient US landing ships they bought 2nd hand, which are now being replaced by 2 wiz bang helo carriers .... same logistics slot in national defence, wildly different performance.
Watching this from Latvia...
As a Russian Latvian, I can sign off on almost everything Chris said here.
I was raised as a Russian in Latvia, I spoke Russian, only. Went to a Russian PUBLIC school. Yes there such insanities there. There were back in 2010 anyway. Last I heard my friends study in Latvian now. Keep in Mind there is only one national language in Latvia, it is Latvian. And in general I was a Russian, just without the Russian passport.
Russian news channels were a norm and well the dislike for the Latvian governent was and still is, high in our house.
I lived in Ireland for the last 12 years and it took years on Integartion to understand how backwards the whole situation is in Latvia.
Yes the news channels are just blatant propaganda in Latvia. I am glad they banned them. If I am honest this should have been done in 2014. My gandmother was such a loveley lady before all of this Russian nonsence starting from 2014. Untill they have turned the Russian news down she was like a vicious hound. Very angry, spitefull and agressive. She is much better now that they turned it off. You can actually talk to her. It's easy to say that Latvia doesent respect free speech and such. However, 1/3of the population is just programmed to hate, violently at that. I doubt you guys in US would let a chineese state owned newschannel programm 1/3 of the US citizens to hate America and all of her values.
And many many russians in Latvia are very pro Putin. At least the ones I know. Even in my family only me and my sister are really agains the war and putin at large. And we are the last generation in our family.
My family moved to Irleand in 2010. Me and my sister are probably agains Russia and most of what happens in Ukraine only because we integrated well into Ireland. Unlike our parents. God only knows how we would see this if we stayed in Latvia. With all the russian propaganda and the Russian influence.
It is like there is 2 societies there. Two separate people that dont intermingle at all. Even writing this now it seems crazy. Thinking about it now its pretty scary.
"I doubt you guys in US would let a chineese state owned newschannel programm 1/3 of the US citizens to hate America and all of her values."
Oh, my sweet summer child...
Respect i uvazhuha!
U r just another sheep of nato now.
You really think nato is great, Assange is gonna face death in usa for exposing, nato troops killing civilians and children.
You say Russian army do this, but you don't have evidence, meanwhile there is video available of nato troops doing point blank shooting on children
Banning Propaganda doesn't make it better. It shows how much a democratic Society can't handle mutlipel Sources. Propaganda needs to be disproved and mocked in Public.Btw I love Democracy, it's great. Do you love love Democracy or are you Evil.
Yes, it's almost like it's a crazy, mad design by someone who wanted to populate the region with different people in order to maintain political order through ethnic chaos. Saddest part it's not just Latvia but every bit of Russian Empire. From Baltic to Black Sea. From Kaukaz to Kamchatka.
P.S Is your sister single?
I'm quite proud that my Canadian brotherine is helping amp up Latvia's military.
Chris, the U.S. does have a federally funded military training system in American high schools. It's called Jr.ROTC. I took NJROTC. The Navy had us 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year, for three years. That's a lot of training.
Selected students went to a "contest" at the Naval Training Center which was a reduced boot camp. Hell, we had the Blue Jackets Manual memorized, knew how to wear the uniforms, all shot expert at the range, and most importantly we had the military mindset.
We could have gone directly from high school to the Navy as a 3rd class petty officer with no boot camp.
We could have gone on to NROTC in college. Four years tuition free college in exchange for 3 years active duty and 7 years in the reserve.
Millions of kids are trained every year and would be more effective than an 18-year-old off the street and sent through boot camp.
Your country has volunteer youngsters trained and ready to go to A School.
I am from Latvia and i went (and am still going) to the high school defence education program. I can tell you it is nothing like the stuff you mentioned.
It is kind of an experimental program that is only in some schools and isn't even obligatory (i think it will be by 2024). The lessions happen once a week for 4 hours, it is quite basic stuff like marching, cartography, first aid, shooting with metal bb's, etc.
This summer i went to their boot camp for 10 days, there we got to shoot actual rifles, make camouflage etc.
@@davidgoodnow269 your programme sounds way more serious. We didnt even get uniforms and shot only twice, with metal airsoft, but well, the program is still half baked and is meant to be implementable in all schools
@@davidgoodnow269 yes we do have scouts! My friend is/was a scout
@@davidgoodnow269 i think that is rather impossible. Our education system is already poor and does not have such resources. Maybe a single, rich school could do it but Latvia has 650+ schools of which many are really small and have under 100 students total. Children that are interested in this can just become scouts.
Morally - We are.
To be quiet honest you'd be surprised how much Latvian National Guard and Armed Forcds (NBS) has Improved over the years, and during these months since the invasion, I got to know that atleast 2500 people joined National Guard in the heartbeat.
Hell yeah we are.
As a Latvian, i am pro western. Our minimal wages are already low enough, i dont want to be overtaken by russia to have them even lower.
you ll be just FINE ! :)
pro western? You could be, but the west is just lgbt people and imigrants. Utleast i can honnor russia because they dont want any influence from lgbt people or geyrope
@@siasurveillancevan8112lmao, cope and sethe.
My grandfather died in the Latvian army fighting Russians during WE-2
Respect.
He was fighting for the Nazis lol.
@@elmohead he was fighting against the Russians! Not because he liked the Germans. Because he hated the Russians. Caught between two evils.
@@michealnagy5763
before:untermenschen.
Now:Orcs.
You guys (neonazis) really need to demonize your foes in order to defeat them, huh?.
@@dariusz1594 they try to kill us! We will reciprocate!
An awful lot I didn't know in that video, many thanks to you and your team Mr Cappy
Seeing this as an infantryman in the latvian military, makes me even more interested.
Good vid!
Berjoza
The Kremlin in its warped way realises that base population is power, not empty SqKm & partly dismantled tank parks.
In 1900 the Russian Empire’s population (inc Poland, Ukraine & Baltic states) was 125m and the USA’s was 76m people. The Tsars wanted a Russia economically modelled on the USA wrt developing their great open spaces in Siberia like the mid-West of America. This was something realised after Russia had sold the Alaskan territory and given up on expanding to the Eastern Pacific rim (US West Coast) as there weren’t enough Russian’s wanting to go there. Probably because going East it was all pain and no political freedom gain, as was the case if you voyaged West from Warsaw to Wyoming. It was self-motivation that drove the US expansion not imperial decree.
In 1989 the USSR had 280m people (Russian Federation was half at 140m) and the USA 245m people.
By 2021 the Russian Federation’s population has flattened out at 144m while the US has continued to expand to 331m people
Although the US growth is a foundation for the USA’s economic and military power, all are also an expression of good governance. Russia may have it backward again. You don’t gain that kind of power base by kidnapping your neighbours and taking away their free will.
1900 is mentioned to represent
A point in time that was built upon and continues to fight for their freedom .
Love the work, digging the smart-ass Army humour. As a Canadian and exArmy, how about a video on Natos deployments in each of the Baltic States?? A plans and preparation video? I know you've mentioned before that keeping a land connection would be vital for resupply as we would not like a repeat of the WW2 German army.
Well done. A plain language report on what could be perceived as a complex situation. Good Journalism, with your obvious bias stated out front.
The CVRT (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked) Scimitar and Sabre are fitted with the 30mm RARDEN cannon not a 105mm
I think the CVRT platform with smart upgrades has a lot of life left in it, especially in this situation
So I presume Lithuania has taken the next step in hybrid warfare by cutting off rail supplies to Kaliningrad.
14:27
I actually met one of these Canadian soldiers at a bar in Riga. Pretty chill dude. We joked about Russian invasion as if it werent such a big deal. I wonder how he is doing and what he is thinking about the situation today
Loved your breakdown of the CVR, the porcupine metaphor was both humorous and effective.
No shit end of EBOLC we had a Latvian officer who was just mag and belt dumping a 249. He always requested the 249 during FTXs. Mf was a platoon leader at one point carrying a 249 still
absolute chad
It would have been instructive for you to recount what happened the last time Russia invaded Latvia.
In 1940, Russia invaded the Baltic states and immediately started a program of mass murder and deportations, just as they are now doing in Ukraine.
Those who were not murdered immediately, were sent to the Gulag or Siberia; the total number of victims is estimated in the low millions.
When the Germans invaded the Baltics in 1941 on their way to Moscow, they were welcomed as liberators, and Balts flocked to join the Wehrmacht to fight the Russians.
When WWII officially ended in 1945, numerous Baltic people remained in the forests and continued a guerilla war until the last of them were captured and sent to Siberia or shot in the 1950's.
In parallel with this, the Russians continued with a replacement strategy in which Russians were relocated to the Baltic states, and native Balts were sent to the Gulag. This continued until the fall of the Soviet Union. These actions account for the high proportion of Russian sympathizers in the Baltic states today.
Nobody in the Baltic states forgets this, and this is why the native Balts are so highly motivated to oppose Russian aggression.
all lies except your admission that Latvia needs denazification asap. Not to worry, I am latvian and as soon as the time comes ill be ready for people like you :)
As a latvian, I wanted to add that our people did not want to fight. We were forced by russians, then germans, then russians again and now russians again. Originally, we were agnostic people living off the forest until vikings forced trade and germanics religion on us. We were the last region in Europe to adapt the christian religion, by force.
So you were occupied by Germany and germans were catching jews and sending them to concentration camps yet you hold absolutely no grudge against them. Interesting. Brain washing is outstanding
Evul rooskie commiez vs St. Adolf the liberator, I got what you mean.
...ka tik ne arī...
Maybe when Russia and Belarus hold exercises on the Latvian border, Latvia, at least in computer simulation style, practices preparatory evacuation of non-combatants. Like working with EU countries and their hotels and Air B&B's, moving people out on planes, boats, buses, and trains and bringing NATO troops, intelligence agents, and supplies in. Maybe there is a lottery for government supported "vacations" just to try out some of the logistics at small scale so lessons are learned beforehand. And remember, get out of any part of a city that does not have a good bunker. Health care goes underground.
35% it's more you can see it day to day life.. walking on streets or just being in a bigger city you hear Russian speaking people(in Rīga you can see and hear more Russian speaking people then Latvian at least in the center). they don't start to talk with you in Latvian but they begin in Russian and it personally annoys me. I get those who can't speak Latvian, cause they just traveled or moved in recently, but when you have lived for most of your life in Latvia and still won't learn a thing.
In Kengarags we speak Kengaragian XD
TBH I'm one of those dudes who speaks Russian with people after a generic "labdien". I didn't spend my whole life here but with my 6th year living in Riga I have fewer and fewer good excuses for not speaking the language. Truth is the thing is damn hard if you have no use for the language in your daily life. I spent close to 1.5 years in Latvian language courses and still my knowledge is laughable. I have no Latvian friends, there is no Latvian language content I might be interested in. The quality of teaching materials is shit, the courses are mostly waste of time. At most they teach you how to pass the state exam which I did with flying colours. My wife even passed B2, still she can't really speak.
It's your right to be annoyed. But in my experience in Russia, the types who complain that an Uzbek street cleaner doesn't speak perfect Russian, are usually the biggest dickheads themselves. Have a little sympathy.
Wrong. It's 25% according to statistics. He is probably using like 2008 data.
@@davidgoodnow269 very interesting language learning method
Thanks for the informative video! Looking at this from Estonian perspective and seeing what is happening in Ukraine, I think we need two things. We need to be building reserves so that we would be able to sustain a fight that will not last a few weeks, but that could take months or even years. This means conscription and I think Latvia should bring this back as soon as possible. The second thing we need is a larger force to immediately counter any invasion. We cannot afford to trade territory as a strategic defence - we need to stop them at the border. For this the current NATO allies contingent needs to be three to four times larger than it currently is. We also need division level capabilities in each country. In the Estonian war of liberation, Estonia was able to defeat Russia by fielding a force of some 100 000 men. We must be prepared to do that again if necessary.
Solid Analysis! Very much enjoy your cast!
It always baffles me that ethnic minorities in one country want the country they favor to move to them, rather than them moving to the country they favor.
Latvia just instituted a draft for men 18-27 this week.
We do have that class in the US, its called JROTC.
I couldnt believe that THE us youtube military grunt would cover the lithiuanian military, even less i could believ my luck that with the latvians now all three baltic states were covered 💪🏼🇪🇺🇺🇲
16:12 Honestly there seems to be evidences showing that when the USSR collapsed and released states to become independent, it voluntarily gave away some strategic territories to those new states which contained high rates of ethnic Russian population, notably Crimea and Kaliningrad which they proposed giving back to Germany
@John Philip We're both denouncing USSR's responsibility in this situation anyway
@16:50 "the ban on Russian media on 6 of June", but the actual the bans started on 3rd of March, then on 5th of June court ruled this ban unlawful, so the ban was lifted, and then on 6th of June this law was passed allowing the ban.
"We're walking around with guns through a suburban street, something you could never do in the United States." Have you been to Texas?
Here before the title is changed.
Havent watched the video yet but why's it getting changed?
@@TCraig00 A/B Testing, basically putting two different titles or thumbnails up and seeing which one gets more clicks.
@@GiantJanus ohhh. I never caught on to that. Theres another channel i watch that i think changes 3/4 of their videos titles and i never got why. Makes sense tho
I think the Latvians are closely watching what is going on in Ukraine, and are taking reasonable steps to try and protect their country.
We are
@20:00 "While Latvia this time finds itself on the safe side" - There are not safe sides, Ukraine believed in USA promises about safety and joining NATO and look where they are now
Dr.Doom won’t let any power take over Latvia.
there is nothing to do in Latvian marshy forests with heavy tanks, it will be a cemetery
Hi there from Latvia! Some comments about content. Economics. We already have cut off export to Russia and their valuables transit. Yes, it hurts, but it's not game changer. And we have detained russian founds in banks and shares in company's and real estates.
Military equipment. You have been in Latvia and saw, how densely forested, swampy and sandy Latvia can be. You have seen have useless stuck Abram can be. Latvia is not open field like Ukraine and is not useful for tank battles. Patria Latvia. This is new combat vehicle in cooperation with Finland. It is made and repaired in Latvia. It will help with mobility a lot.
Personnel. Example there are border guards that is not part of military, but has military training, are on the spot and can help defend country.
Freedom of speech. It is one thing to say your opinion and another to ask forcefully change government or make genocide against some group. It is thin line, but it is necessary to do, because some people are so stupid and easily influenced, they listen only one, russian side and don't wan to hear other side. And after hearing that propaganda they made hate crime against people, that walking around with Ukrainian flag. I'm here on the streets, I see what consequences is to propaganda. These people justifies their action's with propaganda.
Thanks for adding your interesting comment to this thread.
Ты и есть пример пропаганды
If I remember right, Latvia is only Baltic state that doesn't have draft. So the army is extremely small and don't have enough reservists. They heavily rely on paramilitary militia, but I have no idea how good it is trained. Estonia and Lithuania are in much better shape
Did you watch the video? It explained perfectly why we dont have draft and why us our reserves so small
@@taurenis , let's see if I understood him correctly:
1. Latvia is preparing mostly for a hybrid war and not Ukraine style massive invasion.
Before 2014 I would agree with this. Now I am not sure. Russians have shown they are completely unpredictable.
2. Latvians have chosen to invest heavily in one mechanized brigade and they think it will be enough for a hybrid war.
West initial response to Russian invasion to Ukraine was slow and very careful. We cannot predict what will be NATO's response in case of massive invasion to Latvia. So we can expect Latvian army, Zemessardze and multinational NATO battalion defend the country on their own for at least week or more.
3. Latvian military doctrine is based now on the total defense. I am not sure how can you have total defense doctrine without a lot of reserves or at least well trained territorial defense. For some reason Chris didn't mention Zemessardze at all and concentrated on the regular army. I have no idea how good Zemessardze is trained. I could find any sources in either English or Russian about this subject.
Dievs svētī! Thank you!
As a complete rando I hereby endorse Chris Cappy as an ambassadorial representative of the United States and it's people, With this endorsement I call upon the Federal government to grant funding to Private Cappy as compensation and assistance so that he can carry on performing his self assigned duties. He does a pretty good of making the US look not just good but great so it would be money well spent backing him. If you don't ask then you don't get all, So fingers crossed.
Very well said, as a Latvian l can say so.
I’m surprised that Latvia is considering to implement Total Defence. Here in Singapore we have that too
Singapore is US territory
@@millevenon5853 so it latvia then xD
To be honest. When I was in we trained with Austin SWAT and we were walking around the streets with sim rounds. It was weird. The 2 nd amendment calls for a well regulated militia for the security of the free state.
I'm half-Latvian half-Russian born in Daugavpils. The most Russian speaking and most pro-Kremlin town in Latvia. If Putin decides to escalate, basically we are the target.
I can't imagine the fear of people guessing who's pro-kremlin vs pro-Latvia if a war started.
@@Senaleb well, most of them you wouldn't guess since they pledge their loyalties loud and open. But yes, there is still a quite a layer of people in-between who would bring us much surprises.
Got a real LOL out of me at 19:15 with the surprise party icon. 🤣
You're doing a great job. Nice work as always.
As someone who has very limited time to watch TH-cam videos, I always find time for T&P. Keep making awesome vids dude!
Love you man. Please do a video about the New Chinese aircraft carrier.
After your positive videos about Lithuania and Estonia, I was hoping for something more uplifting about Latvia as well, especially as you were based there for a while.
Your analysis points to Latvia being vulnerable to Russian hybrid attacks more so than its Baltic neighbours. While it might be the case that Estonia and Lithuania have done some things very well, any differences between us are minuscule. Sadly, Latvia is quite bad at PR, which is unfortunate, as it leads to the kinds of conclusions you draw here, which in turn contributes to the types of hybrid operations against Latvia you yourself describe. (Maybe it is after all a well-executed PSYOP?)
Just a few quick examples of misguided statements (based on misconceptions or outdated info):
1) rus speaking population in Latvia is NOT 36%, it is actually 24% (similarly to Estonia).
2) Latvia is NOT reliant on exports to rus (yes, they are next door, so you will always find some economic activity). But consider that Latvia exports 4x as much to Lithuania, and 2x as much to Estonia. Other top 10 export partners are all in the EU and the US. There is a clear export market for Latvia, and it is NOT rus. With new sanctions in place, you’ll see rus’s small number falling even further.
3) The analysis of Latvia being vulnerable to some separatist movement or other form of military destabilisation from within is absurd and has been debunked numerous times before.
4) Latvian non-resident deposits made up just 6% in 2020 (and might be even lower in 2022) and NOT 40%. Due to the recognition of vulnerabilities in its banking, massive financial reforms took place over the past years. Latvia demolished its thriving financial sector and set aside its ambition of being a financial hub (such as Switzerland, London, Cyprus, or Luxembourg) and has since become one of the most financially in-order countries in the EU.
5) Latvia has NO deep cultural heritage and background with rus(!), at least no more than any other of the countries in our region that are rus’s neighbours, e.g. Estonia, Finland, Lithuania. rus for centuries has been the greatest threat to Latvian people, but that in no way represents a close relationship.
6) It needs to be reminded, Latvia, like the other Baltic states, was in fact occupied by rus for 50 years in the 20th century and through targeted immigration and russification programs the Latvian population was suppressed and to this day is living with the consequences of this.
7) Due to the above, Latvia has a considerable rus-speaking population and a part of that population is living in rus’s information space. When you speak of rus finding themselves lost outside their homeland, this might be true, but the reunification is not what rus leaders see in their wet dreams, but instead can only happen by these people hopping on a train to rus.
8) When you speak of some statistics, the rus-speaking and non-loyal part of the population will mess up many statistics, but make no mistake, the overwhelming majority of Latvians are completely and absolutely very deeply European and pro-EU, pro-NATO; there is no question of choosing rus or the West - we are the West!
I could go on, but you get my point. Latvia needs to be better at getting its message across and we all should be more careful not to become part of rus’s info operations.
hey the Russian citizens trapped outside their country was him playing devil's advocate for a moment. he literally says "understand it from their (Russia's) perspective."
Well, your friends & allies surely hope you're right.
But better to consider & prepare for the possibility Chris Cappy's analysis is more astute than you think, than assume 'Oh those Russian speaking Guys are OK', then find out they aren't.
Ukraine & ex-Yugoslavia maybe should be saying to you 'prevention's better than cure'.
You sound like a baby looking for positive news. The best way for Latvian security is for Russia to become a Liberal democracy or for America to annex the Baltics or an EU federation/supersate that gets along well and speaks English.
US is with you !
Well put info:
Here are my 2 cents worth or questions:
1. As a wiseman once put: would Nato countries put their capital under the threat of Russia if 3 small Baltic states are threatened in order to preserve the independence of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia? By looking at how Germans are acting, it does not appear, at least, there is going to be a united front.
2. How hard or easy to defend Baltic states? At what costs? Difficult to answer, but given their geographical location, Russia does have more benefit of distance. Another war would cost Nato billions of dollars or Euros. Not sure what benefits it brings to defend those countries. The only benefit would be ‘no wars in my soil’. ie they will become the battlefield reducing direct destruction in other territories.
3. Do they have means to self defend themselves? Clearly no. Given their size iof population and economy or industrial output, very unlikely. However not all is lost if they decide to work together. If those three countries for a common Defence pact, ie shared military budget and personnel, there might be a way. They will be population of just under 6m. If they can mobilise 10%, that would be 600k troops. It is much bigger apple to bite than any single country out of three. Then with the size (regular military), they can have 1-2 mechanised division with proper high value assets like MBT, some Anti-air capabilities and have much stronger purchasing power as well.
Each country may not be able to afford sizeable airforce but combined, they maybe able to afford some light fighter planes. They may also expand Estonia’s K9 artillery and have more under the umbrella. Estonia got a great deal buying a second hand K9, with more numbers, they should be able to get more. Alternatively, they can get cheaper K55A1 or A2s second hand which are being replaced in Korea (licensed production of M109 but much more modernised using K9 technology). Korea operates 1,500 of these and retiring some of them soon as they get new K9A2.
Unfortunately their numerical and financial constraints will always be there but by combining their military and its assets, they will have at least some chance of withstanding any invasion until the Nato forces arrive.
It will be a tough job to defend those 3 countries. Huge respect for those working hard to defend it.
If the rest of NATO _doesn't_ defend the Baltic States, the no-one will ever trust any treaty signed by a NATO member ever again.
NATO will have no others choice as they are NATO territory and as such articles 5 will apply and for Ukraine they are not a NATO territory and this is a huge factor but as an allied they are receiving weapons and howitzer and tons and tons of ammunition including manpad that destroy main battles tanks (MBT).
They had to show their country were going to defend itself first for Ukraine 🇺🇦 the reminder is history and now they are getting more and more weapons and heavy artillery and air defense missiles.
If NATO is advised as defensive alliance, then what point it has if it will not defend their members
There is no comparison between state sponsored defense courses in America vs Latvia. Latvia is under direct threat, we aren't under direct threat from anything.
Big fish always eats little fish, economy of scale always wins.
I like your videos because you always proceed with thoughtful opinions and present the evidence you’re drawing from.
I agree with you that democracy’s strength is the debate of ideas (also its great Achilles’ heel). Ultimately, however, free speech relates to citizens and not antagonistic states pumping anti-state propaganda into a country. So, I don’t think Latvia banning Russia state media propaganda is anti-democratic - Latvia isn’t silencing its own citizens. I wish more countries would take a more proactive approach to protect their citizens from misinformation and disinformation like Latvia does.
Keep in mind too that when people make these ‘democracy are bastions of free speech’ declarations they are often being fast and lose with their definitions, often for rhetorical and misleading purposes. So, we need to be critical when people make those kinds of broad statements. Oftentimes, people making those statements are making the disingenuous comparison to authoritarian or totalitarian states who silenced their own citizens and independent and differing voices and projecting that process on to democratic societies. It’s a straw man argument. Details matter. I don’t consider a society trying to get a handle on misinformation, disinformation, antagonistic state actors, propaganda, manipulation, and misleading media as inherently negative. It can be necessary to protect the truth and allow citizens to access differing opinions.
I’m Russian Latvian, now living in USA. I hate Putins aggression and sending money to Ukraine. My mother lives in Latvia and mostly supports this war. Russian propaganda is pure Himmler’s type propaganda on steroids. This “product” switching off logic and critical thinking forever. Besides, all Latvian-Russians can move to Russia, but they don’t want to live in pseudo states like DNR or LNR. (Donetsk/Luhansk peoples republics) they can’t even define what “Russian Way/World” . Great video. Big fan .
Ты и есть продукт геббельсовской пропаганды запада
Great vid, you should do a video on the Norwegian military.
You always put a lot of nuance in yo videos and I got mad respect for that
05:27 was a pleasant surprise to me - I was actually there (in Ādaži, 24.10.2010). Crazy to think that we have probably actually met. Do you have more pictures from that small event/showcase?
Latvia being part of NATO changes the game completely, nato aircraft could achieve superiority over Russia, something Ukraine was not able to access.
Well you know…. Russia said that they destroyed whole Ukraine airforce like… 1-10 times already and still some how there is ukraine airforce flying everywhere
For those of you who haven't heard nor been to the Corner House (Stūra Māja) and the Museum of the Occupation, it's an eye opener and quite tragic to what happened to the Latvian people under Soviet rule. Incredibly dark. I, too, was mobilized there in 2017. While in several convoys throughout the suburbs and rural areas of Latvia, we were waved at, given thumbs up more than the middle finger, the latter which happened for obvious reasons: to Chris' point, there are Latvian Russia sympathizers who believe that life was better under the Soviet Union and want it to be that way again. Sadly, I met a few while in Riga. However, I do believe that our military presence and support does help the Latvian armed forces as well as encourage a less obscure outlook and morale for the population. Before, after, and to this day I am under the impression that Latvians born after the fall of the Soviet Union, and even some who watched it fall, will fight tooth and nail to protect their land. As always, great presentations, Chris!
Thank you for that perspective, Tucker.
Thank you for your support
Thank you for your service in helping defend my country. Those who give middle fingers and reminisce of the Soviet Union are mostly ethnic Russians who mostly listened to Russian state tv.
I'd be interested to see your analysis of the Moldovian military. They're a tiny, underfunded, obsoletly equipped force. What do you think they should do to improve their chances to survive an attack from the Russian battalions in Transnitria
Intetesring comment. Being that Moldova was originally part of Romania, prior to 1940. It probably would be best if Moldova would rejoin Romania and then they would be under the NATO protective blanket.
Moldova should Join Romania, and instantly get E.U./NATO assistance. On their own, they wouldn’t last 48 hours if the Russians invaded.
@@MrHrKaidoOjamaaVKJV Before suggesting nonsense read the EU statutes, Moldova has a breakaway region, it will never be allowed. And Moldova has no interest in that.
@@MrHrKaidoOjamaaVKJV Молдавия часть России, а Румыния часть Турции
@@goodlife6277 Maybe they just cede Transnistria to Ukraine. End of breakaway region.
If this happens, I really hope that we will help them. Russians can try their tourist tactics or something, it doesn't matter, we have to help in full NATO scale in such case, there must be some red line.
Hmm... Looks Like we have to Denazifie Them too, Looking at the Patch of the Soldier on the Thumbnail.
Was working and lived in Latvia around 12 years ago. The people I was close with and spoke about their situation, they were really concerned about the one third of Russian ethnics. At that time they expected already some actions of R to bring back Latvia to the Russen Federation (soviets).
Imho, it is another kind of Ukraine.
Indeed it is another kind of Ukraine. i am from Latvia and I can tell you right now that hundreds of thousands of people are not going to be fighting alongside the west if the situation escalates, including myself. It's time to liberate the country from the west.
I really wish I could of served over in Latvia 🇱🇻 with the Canadian Forces. I'm Canadian but my family is Latvian. My grandfather had to flee Latvia in WW2 after the Soviets were invading for a second time. I got injured in Afghanistan so had to retire early. Would of been nice to serve 2 countries at once that were very close to me.
You did your bit, time for the young blood to take over. We can't do what we can't do. Thanks for your Service.
@@jeffho1727 thanks, it just sucks cutting the military career early. But I'm damn glad I did my time and that can never be taken away
Have worked with your boys together, amazing professionals, great fun too! Canadians are amazing.
@@Hamsteak Same here. Tanker chin from my ARVL, 3b as my boys from TF1-06 were going over. I cry like a baby every Aug. You did your time, you did good. Anything else will eat you up. Take it easy Brother...
Call it a hunch, but I suspect your granddaddy had to run away in 1945 (together with the Germans) because he was a Nazi collaborator.
In order for him to be able to come to Canada, he would have to be in the American or Canadian occupation zone in the West. Notably, the Germans in 1945, when retreating, didn't take along any locals unless those locals WORKED for them. Incidentally, in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania the largest Nazi employers for the locals were Waffen SS and Schutzmannschaft.
And we all know all of the wonderful things those two organizations did for the people (especially the Jews and the Belorussians) of Eastern Europe ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_Auxiliary_Police )
8:34 it's not completely analogous but we have JROTC and ROTC for high school and colleges in the US. different schools in a district get different branches, but the goal is to be able to enlist as an officer. i had marine corps and they didn't go easy on us and it was honestly one of my favorite classes. when we had a big meetup day i got the impression some of the other branches might not have had as 'serious' as an experience but the challenge meant anyone who wanted to stay in had to work for it. uniforms had to be ironed and were inspected once a week; i found it really valuable to be able to still learn those lessons without needing to be shipped off to boot
Bruh you are hella smart. Thank you for the videos
Marchinh through suburban strerts? I drived through central Rovaniemi on a Ktm LC4 400 with rk 62 on my back, full mag of blanks. It was December, so I had spike tires. The sparks from pebblestone streets were priceless. Oh the memories from those 6 months of conscription service.
We (me and the rest of the combat messengers) were on bikes during this exercise, as there was not suficient snow coverage for snowmobiles.
I'm from Romania, now i feel left out 😋
Same im bulgarian
You guys are in alot safer position (:
One interesting thing about Canada stationing troops in Latvia is that I remember at the start Russia was trying to turn Latvians against the Canadians. Russia was pushing how we accept gay marriage and stuff along that line (What the Russian government thinks is bad). I swear I remember that being covered by media here in Canada.
This is a key Commies strategy to destroy us!!!
The truth is all that LGBTQ/woke stuff is actually secretly being pushed onto the West by Kremlin (and their assets in the West) to destroy Traditional, Moral, Catholic structure the family unit.
Simultaneously their propaganda outfits make a bigger deal out of it than it really is and they make themselves out to be the only savior state standing up for Christian types, it’s all phony but many don’t do their homework and think INFOWARZ is real info(Kremlin outfit) so deceptive downright Satanic.
“For example, the alleged religious relaxation is a spectacle produced and managed by the KGB and the high priests of the church are KGB agents assigned to fulfill Communist strategy.”
“ As part of the programme to destroy religion from within, the KGB, in the late 1950s, started sending dedicated young Communists to ecclesiastical academies and seminaries to train them as future church leaders.”
- The Perestroika Deceptio by A. Golitsyn
As someone living in Latvia i must say Anti EU, Anti Nato, Anty allys propaganda campaigns s everyday reality. And usage of LGBT, and pointing out what far left side activists are saying, is like, regular thing.
As a Latvian, I don't think turning Latvians against Canadians can be possible, since all time favorite Latvian president came from Canada. I also don't think that Latvians care that much about what lgbt people do to each other, let them do it as long as it don't bothering them
@@GunslingerLv does not change fact that propaganda campaigns happen
@@VilkatisJanis whats good is propaganda if its clearly propoganda?
O damn this was interesting seeing this as a Latvian
Vai ne? :D Nebūtu gaidījis..
@@datman6266 es tieši to pašu padomāju kad šo redzēju
@@papaainsl3705 esmu arī pārsteigts ka kāds pēkšņi atcerējas ka vispār ir tāda Latvija lol
The words "Total Defence" are very familiar to me as a Singaporean.
I wonder if they got it from us.
6 prongs:
1. Psychological: deals with mentality
2. Social: we're multi-ethnic with Chinese majority (but not necessarily affiliated with the PRC) and a societal fabric needs to be woven
3. Economic: various ways to safeguard our economy
4. Civil: if SHTF, our police, firemen and medics would have to respond
5. Military: all males of statutory age have to serve for 2 years by law. We continue in camp training every year for at least 10 years a few weeks at a time.
6. Internet (this is new to me)
If the Latvians are following this similar approach to total defence, I hope they have enough time to implement it properly.
I think our own success is mixed. I think we can do better in the psychogical and social spheres.
@@tonikaihola5408 Simo Hayha... Respect