Russian Federation

The article reveals the challenges for cooperation of the participating states in the Bucharest Nine initiatives in the conditions of the evolution of security threats on NATO’s eastern borders. The preconditions, purpose and goals of the Bucharest Nine have been highlighted. The group composition of B9 participants on a territorial basis has been considered, namely: the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the Visegrad Four countries (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic), and the Black Sea countries (Bulgaria and Romania).

The article identifies key problems on the path of energy security and the role of NATO in solving them. The Alliance’s position on the energy issue has been determined. The documents of the NATO summits in Bucharest in 2008, in Chicago in 2012, and the NATO 2010 Strategic Concept have been analyzed. It turned out that the Alliance has divided its role into three areas: raising awareness; protecting critical energy infrastructure and deepening energy efficiency in the military. The role of Centers of Excellence, their specialization, and goals have been investigated.

The article analyzes the energy security of the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) in the context of polyhybression of the Russian Federation, which acts against them multifrontally by means of hybrid methods, mainly by energy leverage. It is noted that the countries of the region are currently energy dependent on the Russian Federation. Attention is focused on the resistance of the Baltic States to official Moscow's hybression in the energy sector.