NATO’s Unity an Unpleasant Surprise for Russia, Estonia Says

(Bloomberg) -- NATO's unity in confronting the potential threat against Ukraine has been a negative surprise for Russia, and Europe must be strategic with sanctions in case of an attack, Estonia's prime minister said.

Premier Kaja Kallas said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions in Ukraine still aren't clear as his government masses forces across the border from its former Soviet partner. The Kremlin denies that it is planning to invade.

“He's building military forces around Ukraine, and it presents a great threat,” Kallas said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday from Tallinn. “The unity of NATO allies has become a negative surprise for Russia -- that NATO's allies have kept the line very strongly.”

Kallas urged western nations to avoid falling into the “trap” of conceding to Russian demands and ultimatums, which include written pledges not to allow new member states to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

She also again rejected Putin's claim that NATO is a threat to Russia, saying the real threat seen by his administration is that countries in the former Soviet bloc are embracing democracy more deeply and diverging from what she called his “authoritarian” rule.

The European Union must act strategically with the use of potential additional sanctions against Russia -- and possibly its ally Belarus -- by sending a strong signal on what kind of penalties it can use and carrying them out if necessary, Kallas said.

She repeated the warning that dependence on Russian natural gas is detrimental to Europe's security, and that western nations must also be on alert to react to aggression, including cyberattacks and hybrid offensives, such as Belarus's efforts to send migrants across the EU's eastern border last year.

“We hope that there is a diplomatic way out of this, and if the price for Russia is too high then they don't make the steps that we see them planning,” Kallas said.