Clouds are gathering over Europe as tensions on the eastern flank of Nato countries escalate after a spate of drones flew over Polish, Danish and Romanian skies and three Russian fighter planes entered Estonian airspace last month. It’s hard to disagree that “we are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe”, as Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, gloomily stated after her country’s main airport was closed due to the appearance of drones of unknown origin.
For our cover story, chief reporter Daniel Boffey travels to Narva, an Estonian town that is separated from Russia by a now heavily fortified “Bridge of Friendship”, to take the pulse of its 98% Russian-speaking population as it prepares for a mayoral election that will test the country’s unity and resilience against Russia’s provocations. How Europe and Nato respond is a question that concerns the whole world, but historian Sergey Radchenko suggests there are some tactical lessons politicians, military strategists and diplomats could take from the cold war era.
