The ministry’s department head of ideological work Alexander Ivanov shared his suspicions on the national talk show, Po Suschestvu, during a discussion about potential targets for spies.

“Where do you think there were the most Pokémon at that time?” he asked before stating that the bulk of virtual Pokémon were present at the “territory of the 50th air base, where the runway is, where there is a lot of military aviation equipment.”

Pokémon GO relies on GPS tracking as it invites users to turn on location and use their phone camera to search their physical surroundings and collect virtual pocket monsters.

The mobile game was developed as a collaboration among Niantic Inc., Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.

Privacy Concerns

Since the game’s release in 2016, several governments and individuals have been wary of the game’s data-gathering capabilities.

It requires uninterrupted use of user location and camera and “full access” to Google accounts on Apple devices, which garnered multiple data privacy concerns.

At the height of the game’s popularity, Indonesian State Intelligence Agency director Sutiyoso commented that the location-based mobile game poses national security risks, although security experts and analysts did not share this view.

Egypt, Kuwait, and other Middle Eastern governments echoed similar concerns and warned players to avoid sensitive sites.

The US also established procedures preventing civilians from trespassing onto military bases and preventing service members from entering restricted areas to catch Pokémons as these might expose confidential information.

In the year of its release, Russia asserted that the mobile game was a security risk, claiming that it was part of a CIA plot.

Niantic, the game’s software developer company, is headed by former Google Geo division executive John Hanke. 

Hanke was tangled up in conspiracy theories because his former company Keyhole (later acquired by Google) received funding from various sources, including the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel.

However, Niantic denied the allegations and informed The Register that the game “only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected.”

In 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine, Niantic shut down game operations in the Russian and Belarus markets.

“We stand with the global community in hoping for peace and a rapid resolution to the violence and suffering in Ukraine. Niantic’s games are no longer available for download in Russia and Belarus, and gameplay will also be suspended there shortly,” the company tweeted on March 11 of that year. 

The post Belarus Claims AR Game ‘Pokémon GO’ Spied on its Military Assets appeared first on The Defense Post.

The statement came as Kyiv mounts an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and as Russia continues its advance into eastern Ukraine.

Belarus had allowed Russian troops to use its territory as a launchpad for their February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The statement said Ukrainian intelligence had recorded Belarus “concentrating a significant number of personnel … in the Gomel region near Ukraine’s northern border under the guise of exercises.”

It added: “We warn Belarusian officials not to make tragic mistakes for their country under Moscow’s pressure, and we urge its armed forces to cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”

Kyiv accused Belarus of building up equipment and troops on the border, saying it had recorded the presence of Wagner fighters — some of whom are being hosted by Belarus after their leader’s failed rebellion last year.

Ukraine warned that military exercises in the border area pose a “global security” threat due to how close the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant — site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

“We emphasise that Ukraine has never taken and is not going to take any unfriendly actions against the Belarusian people,” the foreign ministry added.

Belarus has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.

In 2022, he had allowed Russian troops to station in Belarus during what Russia and Belarus called “drills” before they launched their invasion in February.

The post Kyiv Says Belarus ‘Concentrating’ Troops on Border, Warns Against ‘Unfriendly Actions’ appeared first on The Defense Post.

A capsule burying ceremony was held Monday at the Rūdninkai Training Area in the country’s southwest to mark the first phase of construction work.

With a size of 170 hectares (420 acres), the site is said to become the “largest piece of military infrastructure” in Lithuania’s recent history.

Lithuania has just launched its largest-ever military project at Rūdninkai, building a base to house 80% of the German brigade. This unprecedented project strengthens regional security and reaffirms our commitment to NATO collective defence. The base will be built in 3 years. pic.twitter.com/yl7caZFKJb

— Lithuanian MOD (@Lithuanian_MoD) August 19, 2024

It is being built by Vilnius-based construction firm Eikos Statyba UAB and is estimated to cost more than 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion).

The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2027, in time for German forces’ full operational capability in the Baltic state.

A Strategic Location

The multibillion-dollar initiative is part of Berlin’s 2023 commitment to station a permanent brigade in Lithuania in 2025.

NATO and European Union member Latvia has been preparing for the “worst-case scenario” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lithuania shares a 227-kilometer (141-mile) border with Russia and is one of Ukraine’s major military backers, making it a potential target for Moscow.

The new military base, which will accommodate up to 4,000 German troops, is located near the capital Vilnius and just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Russian ally Belarus.

It will have facilities for tank storage and maintenance, as well as shooting ranges of various sizes to support military training.

The base is expected to house three major German combat units: the Bavarian 122 Armored Infantry Battalion, the North Rhine Westphalia-based 203 Tank Battalion, and the multinational Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Lithuania.

The post Lithuania Building Military Base for German Troops Near Russia appeared first on The Defense Post.

The joint “antiterrorist” exercises on Russian ally Belarus’ soil near the Polish border come as NATO leaders gather for a summit in Washington, with the war in nearby Ukraine high on their agenda.

With relations between NATO on the one hand and China and Russia on the other at a low ebb, analysts believe that Beijing wanted to send the alliance a warning message with the timing of the drills.

Sino-Belarusian exercises have taken place before, but this is the first time since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, a NATO ally, in February 2022.

The exercises began July 8 in Brest, a city right on the border with Poland, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Chinese defense ministry.

The statement said the maneuvers would last until mid-July but did not give the exact number of Chinese soldiers involved.

Both sides are working to “improve combat techniques and deepen cooperation and communication between the two armies,” the statement added.

Chinese diplomatic officials insisted the exercises were “not aimed at any country in particular.”

But Poland’s defense ministry slammed the timing of the exercises.

It warned of “the risk of the operations in question being used for disinformation and propaganda purposes… to coincide with the NATO summit.”

However small in scale, the exercises still involve China deploying troops on NATO’s doorstep, and to a country Russia used as a launchpad for its invasion of Ukraine.

And the exercises come as Beijing, one of Moscow’s key partners, is also experiencing increasingly tense relations with NATO.

Strategic Signal

Analysts believe that the date and location of the exercises were not chosen by chance, arguing that China wanted to send NATO a message.

“Multilateral exercises are often used to send political signals,” Kelly Grieco of the Stimson Center foreign policy and defense think tank told AFP.

Indeed, she argues that when it comes to military drills, “it’s much more about political signal more than for the exercise itself.”

She points out that China had already carried out anti-terrorism exercises in Belarus four times between 2011 and 2018, but had not done so since.

That they are taking place “that close to the border is part of the signalling” too, she added.

Countries often organise their joint exercises to coincide with developments abroad — not least of them China, added Alice Ekman, senior analyst for Asia at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

“In April 2023, the Chinese held exercises with Russia in the East China Sea, close to Japanese islands, on the eve of a trilateral US-Japan-South Korea summit to signal their opposition to such a summit being held,” Ekman told AFP.

Similarly, China staged military manoeuvres in the South China Sea in May 2024 as the US-Japan-Philippines-Australia meeting was in full swing, she added.

As well as moving closer to Russia, China is becoming increasingly hostile to NATO.

It accuses NATO of working to contain China at Washington’s instigation, with Beijing worried about the alliance’s expanding role in the Asia-Pacific region.

Moreover, China has never forgiven the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade by a NATO plane in 1999.

It also believes that the alliance has already overstepped its geographical sphere of influence in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan.

NATO is perceived by China as “clearly hostile for historical reasons,” Ekman said.

But those reasons were becoming “increasingly strategic as the threat from China becomes an integral part of the organisation’s strategic thinking,” she added.

The post China Warns NATO With Army Drills on Alliance’s Doorstep appeared first on The Defense Post.

The four EU members are staunch allies of Ukraine, which has been fighting a fully-fledged Russian invasion for more than two years.

They are trenchant critics of Moscow, who they accuse of orchestrating hybrid attacks including “intimidation, instrumentalisation of migrants, sabotage, disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference, (and) cyber-attacks.”

In their letter, seen by AFP on Thursday, the leaders of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania urged the 27-nation EU to “spend more and coordinate on defence initiatives within the EU and with NATO.”

“Building a defence infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats,” they said.

Poland and the Baltic states — which all have borders with Russia — have already begun fortifying their eastern borders.

Warsaw has earmarked more than 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) for defense measures along the border.

The letter from the four, sent to coincide with the start of a two-day EU summit in Brussels, urged the bloc to support border protection “both politically and financially.”

They warned the EU was the target of “an unprecedented range of hybrid attacks perpetrated by Russia and its proxies,” including its ally, Belarus.

Poland last month accused Russia of flying thousands of would-be asylum seekers to Moscow and then attempting to send them into the EU across its eastern borders.

The post Poland, Baltics Urge EU to Strengthen Eastern Borders appeared first on The Defense Post.

The decree, signed on May 24, was published on Wednesday on an official government website of the ex-Soviet state that borders both Russia and Ukraine.

First signed by NATO and the Warsaw Pact towards the end of the Cold War in 1990, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) limits the number of tanks, combat aircraft, and other military equipment that can be deployed between the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains.

Although not directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, Belarus hosted Russian troops as Moscow readied to launch its “special military operation” against Kyiv in February 2022.

Belarus has slid ever closer to Moscow since Lukashenko’s highly-contested re-election in 2020, with the president now closing in on three decades in power.

Russia provides financial, military, and diplomatic support to Lukashenko’s regime.

Moscow unilaterally suspended its CFE participation in December 2007, describing the accord as anachronistic.

It said it was doing so after Western countries and NATO members refused to ratify a new version of the treaty that was amended in 1999.

Russia claimed those countries demanded as a condition for ratifying the new version the withdrawal of Russian forces from the separatist region of Transnistria in Moldova and parts of Georgia.

In 2008, Russia sent troops into the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially rubber-stamped Russia’s exit from the treaty in May 2023.

The post Belarus Halts Participation in European Military Treaty appeared first on The Defense Post.

Poland, a NATO member and a staunch supporter of Ukraine, shares a border with both Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and with Belarus, Moscow’s ally.

“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear arms on our territory as part of nuclear sharing, to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready to do so,” Duda said in an interview published by the Fakt daily.

Duda spoke to the Polish media after a visit to New York, where he held meetings at the UN and discussed the war in Ukraine with former US President Donald Trump. In March, he visited Washington, DC, where he met with US President Joe Biden.

Discussions about nuclear cooperation between Poland and the United States have been ongoing “for some time,” he said.

“I have already talked about this several times. I must admit that when asked about it, I declared our readiness,” Duda said.

“Russia is increasingly militarising Kaliningrad. Recently it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” he added.

In June 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia had sent tactical nuclear arms to Belarus, which borders Ukraine and Poland.

During the last NATO summit in Vilnius, the allies pledged to “take all necessary steps to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, safety and security of the nuclear deterrent mission.”

The post Poland ‘Ready’ to Host Nuclear Weapons: President appeared first on The Defense Post.

According to the country’s Ministry of Defense, the inspection will include various exercises and training, particularly with live fire.

The public is also being warned of temporarily limited access to public roads because of the large-scale movement of military hardware.

“The armed forces are paying great attention to maintaining a high level of combat and mobilization readiness in the current aggravated military-political situation,” the ministry said on Telegram.

In December 2023, the Belarusian government also conducted an unexpected readiness check of its air defense forces, particularly its anti-aircraft missile units and radio engineering troops.

Response to NATO?

Minsk’s combat readiness check comes as NATO conducts a large-scale military exercise on Europe’s eastern flank.

Called Exercise Steadfast Defender, the drills involve 90,000 troops and thousands of military assets from all 32 member states.

This year’s exercise focuses on deterring Belarus’ closest ally Russia, which is considered a risk to go to war with NATO if it wins in Ukraine.

Belarusian Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff Viktor Gulevich said the combat readiness check can be viewed as the country’s response to NATO maneuvers near its borders.

He also said to expect intensified exercises in Belarus in the future involving more troops.

The post Belarus Conducting ‘Comprehensive Check’ of Combat Readiness appeared first on The Defense Post.

The Eastern Border Fortification Counter-Mobility Plan aligns with the Baltic Defence Line initiative launched in January to protect member states from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal agenda “if it were to win in Ukraine.”

Latvia revealed that its latest military effort will cover the whole length of its border adjacent to Russia and Belarus’ territories with defense force support outposts, anti-tank trenches, obstacle lines, and tactical equipment storages.

Work for the construction will begin in March and continue for five years.

Eastern Border Fortification Counter-Mobility

Riga wrote that the outposts will have ”reinforced structures and fortifications” to complement troop capabilities further. Existing roads and ditches near the sites will be reformed to increase the number of trenches and cripple enemy mobility.

Various obstacle lines will be placed throughout the border to maintain the functions of the trenches. These lines will include anti-tank mines and “dragon’s teeth” pyramidal fortifications that would disrupt ground fleets.

These lines will be adjusted according to the existing terrain, enabling efficiency with natural obstacles including forest patches, swamps, and other landscapes.

Meanwhile, planned safe storages will house explosives, mines, and engineering systems to deliver rapid support for warfighters stationed at the border.

Additional projects will be developed to facilitate “immediate and effective” shutdowns across main transport routes, bridges, and railways in the event of an attack.

“We will establish the Baltic Defence Line to defend NATO’s Eastern flank and deny freedom of movement for our adversaries,” Latvian Defence Minister Andris Sprūds said during the Baltic Defence Line meeting in January.

“In the lead up to the historic NATO Summit in Washington we must ensure that the Alliance is better prepared than ever to execute defence plans, strengthen air and missile defence and allocate more resources to defence.”

The post Latvia to Strengthen Border Adjacent to Russia, Belarus appeared first on The Defense Post.

Russia’s aggression in the region has sparked concern in the Baltic states that they could be next on Moscow’s agenda were it to win in Ukraine.

“The ministers signed an agreement in Riga, according to which Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will construct anti-mobility defensive installations in the coming years to deter and, if necessary, defend against military threats,” the Estonian defense ministry said in a statement.

It added that the installations would be on the borders with Russia and Belarus. Latvia and Lithuania border both countries while Estonia only borders Russia.

The statement did not provide details on the installations.

The Baltic states — all former Soviet republics and now members of NATO and the European Union — have been staunch supporters of Ukraine from day one of the invasion nearly two years ago.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown that, in addition to equipment, ammunition, and manpower, physical defensive installations on the border are also needed,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said, quoted in the statement.

His Latvian counterpart Andris Spruds also announced the project.

“We will establish the Baltic Defence Line to defend NATO’s Eastern flank and deny freedom of movement for our adversaries,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

The post Baltic States to Build New Defenses on Russia, Belarus Borders appeared first on The Defense Post.