Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters). -To deter Russia from invading Ukraine the West must send a strong signal to Russia, Latvia stated Tuesday.

U.S. media reported that U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be planning an offensive against Ukraine in multiple fronts starting next year. This could involve up to 175,000 soldiers. Russia says it doesn’t intend to invade and that the West is engulfed by Russophobia.

“Russia needs to know in advance what the economic price tag is,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs told Reuters in an interview in London.

Rinkēvičs, who has served as foreign minister since 2011, said it was unclear if Putin was simply trying to test the resolve of the West or if the Kremlin planned a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Maybe astrology, or another more exact science, should be considered. But I do believe that Ukraine for Russia and President Putin is an essential part of the kind of vision of a great Russia,” Rinkēvičs said.

If Russia does invade Ukraine then the West, Rinkēvičs said, should prepare a very strong economic sanctions package including cutting Russia off from the SWIFT international payment system used by banks around the world and sanctioning the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

The NATO military alliance should also boost its presence across Eastern Europe to deter Putin and individual NATO allies might provide arms to Ukraine, Rinkēvičs said.

He said that NATO should increase its presence along the east flank of Ukraine to prove to Russia that Russia will not pay for any military action in Ukraine.

NATO has strengthened its presence across Eastern Europe in recent years. This has upset the Kremlin.

Rinkēvičs said battle groups in the Baltics should be reinforced, air defences strengthened, logistical security improved and an increased U.S. presence on the ground.

“Seeing what is happening now in and around Ukraine, we need also to review where we are with the defence of the eastern flank of NATO,” Rinkēvičs said. That means we must have more capabilities to deter Russia.