“We have always understood this in Latvia: Russia is a potential threat. For many years, we have been warning our friends and allies that Russia is becoming an increasingly real threat. Now we are witnessing how Russia, for the third year in a row, is waging a full flung war against Ukraine,” Kariņš said in an interview published on Monday for the German portal RND.

“[...] we need to develop a long-term strategy for Europe and Ukraine to contain Russia for about 20 years. I strongly call for the development of a long-term strategy because Russia will threaten Europe’s security even after this war ends,” he emphasized.

The government and society of Russia are “in an expansionist, aggressive mode,” added the head of Latvian diplomacy. Russia spends 40% of its budget on “defense and internal security,” clearly entering a warlike path, which means that “Russians are a potential threat to Europe now and in the future,” Kariņš emphasized.

To counteract this, we need a long-term plan that will largely rely on investments and open, very transparent deployment of forces, so that no one on the Russian side could think that NATO is in any way weak,” he argued.

“The situation is actually much more dangerous than during the Cold War,” he assessed.

“Back then, there were two nuclear powers that wanted to maintain the status quo in Europe. Today we have Russia, a country that wants to change the status quo through military means and is already doing so in Ukraine. Unfortunately, today’s situation is much more explosive,” Kariņš stressed.