NATO plans to protect Baltics from Russia: WikiLeaks

UK: Military alliance NATO has drawn up plans to defend the Baltic states against Russian threats, US diplomatic cables released Tuesday by WikiLeaks showed.

An existing defence plan covering Poland was extended to include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after they lobbied for extra protection, said the leaked cables, revealed in Britain's Guardian daily.

The move to defend the former Soviet republics from Moscow risks undermining US President Barack Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with Russia after they were severely tested during the presidency of George W. Bush.

US officials were fully aware of the sensitivity of the matter, the cables showed - they urged their Baltic counterparts to keep quiet for fear of upsetting Russia.

Painful memories were stirred in the Baltic states during the Russia-Georgia war of 2008, according to the cables, part of some 250,000 leaked US dispatches being slowly released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

"Events in Georgia have dominated the news and discussion here like few other events in recent memory," said a cable from the American embassy in Riga, Latvia, cited in The New York Times. AFP