Rumble in the Baltic

"Hearing shots under your window does not mean the end of the world is coming. So please do not lose your mind and most importantly, do not panic!" This warning may sound like a lame imitation of a (post?-)apocalyptic novel. But it's actually quite real and official. It could be seen in a brochure entitled "What you should know: Readiness and vigilance at times of war", issued in January by the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense. "So, we'll whip our enemies with this booklet, but what the Defense Minister says is most important is to keep a cool head and don't panic", Marijus Girsa, a columnist from the conservative newspaper Lietuvos Zinios jested. His skeptical commentary is just a fragment in a lasting and heated debate about what Lithuania and the other Baltic countries should do in case of a Russian military aggression. And I'm not kidding at all here.

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