Despite the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joining the European Union and NATO already 20 years ago, Vladimir Putin has never let go of his imperial desire for Russia to regain control over the three small states to its West. The Kremlin has done this through covertly funding political parties in Estonia and Latvia, setting up elaborate propaganda and disinformation networks, hiring thugs to burn down museums and throw Molotov cocktails at military facilities, arranging cyber-attacks against state institutions, and increasing direct military presence at the Baltic countries’ borders. Award-winning investigative reporters Holger Roonemaa (Estonia) and Inga Springe (Latvia) have spent years revealing Russian hybrid war efforts to sow chaos in the Baltic countries.

Is Putin’s goal to reconquer the U.S allies in North-Eastern Europe or to use the Baltic countries to prove the inefficacy of NATO’s collective defense? What are the Baltic lessons-learned to consider in the U.S? Roonemaa and Springe will discuss the Russian tactics in and against Estonia and Latvia, as well as the methods to counter it.

Holger Roonemaa is a 2024-25 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. He manages the investigative and fact-checking team at the daily news site Delfi Estonia. He is also an editor with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). He has covered money laundering, corruption and evasion of sanctions, as well as topics related to national security, espionage and propaganda. In recent years, the majority of his investigations have focused on Russian security threats in Baltic countries.

Inga Spriņģe is an award-winning investigative journalist, broadcaster, lecturer, and one of the two founders of The Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica, which is based in Latvia. Springe is a member of the major international investigative journalism networks the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Her topics cover propaganda, disinformation, and social justice.

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