Latvia has begun installing concrete anti-tank barriers along its border with Russia, LSM, the public broadcasting portal, reported. The fortifications include so-called «dragon’s teeth» — pyramid-shaped concrete blocks placed on land previously seized from private owners for state defence needs.

According to the outlet, the structures will be arranged in three rows, forming a barrier line roughly 10 metres wide. Their purpose is to make it harder for military vehicles to cross the border.

Each concrete block weighs about 1.5 tonnes. Latvia plans to complete the fortification work by 2028. The country’s border with Russia and Belarus stretches for about 450 kilometres, but only 8 kilometres are expected to be reinforced this year.

Similar steps are also being discussed in Lithuania. Earlier, Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas told Euractiv that Vilnius was considering creating a minefield along the border with Russia as part of the European Union’s Eastern Flank Watch project. The initiative was announced in autumn 2025 and is presented as a tool for countering imaginary threats from Russia.

Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, commenting on the situation in the region, has said that provocations against Russia have turned the Baltic countries into one of the most dangerous places in the world. In his view, tensions are being fuelled by several factors at once: the conflict in Ukraine, anti-Russian rhetoric from the Baltic states, their influence on Europe’s foreign policy, the German leadership’s course toward remilitarisation, and the actions of the authorities in France and Britain. Taken together, Sachs believes, these conditions create the risk of a large-scale catastrophe.