The Baltic countries are studying how to protect their population from hypothetical Russian attacks, and for this reason there has been a discussion about the state of Soviet air defense shelters and the need to expand them against the background of assumptions by European leaders about a possible confrontation between NATO and Moscow, EFE reports on Sunday, Agerpres reports.

Latvia’s chief executive, Evika Silina, said this week that the country is examining Soviet-era bomb shelters and exploring at least partial financing of adapting some private buildings for these purposes.

Latvian Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens added that the authorities are considering the possibility of using European funds to subsidize the adaptation of shelters by individuals.

I am looking for shelter in Riga

On Tuesday, a subcommittee of the Latvian parliament discussed the state of bomb shelters in Riga after the Interior Ministry presented a report last month saying there was no data on how many Soviet bomb shelters were still in operation.

As Gints Rainsons, head of the civil protection department at the municipal council, explained to the deputies, there are about 150 shelters that can theoretically be used, but the conditions they are in vary and many of them pose serious problems.

“After so many years of being abandoned by the civil defense, we collected all available information about air raid shelters,” Riga Vice Mayor Linda Ozola told EFE.

Although they have not been a priority until now, “in the current geopolitical situation, the context is changing very, very quickly,” said Ozola, who added that the adaptation of underground tunnels and parking lots is being studied based on Ukraine’s experience.

The last inventory was in 2008

The president of the civil protection services, Uldis Kevers, told EFE that the last inventory of shelters in Latvia dates back to 2008, and they were already damaged since 1991 without investing in their modernization and the government no longer paying. for their maintenance.

Of the 311 shelters identified at the time, 24% had infiltrates, 25% had damage to the pillars of resistance, and 44% had a dismantled ventilation system.

According to Kevers, these structures, which by 1989 numbered around 1,000 in Latvia and housed 5% of the population, were vandalized and “long past their useful life”.

Citizens are skeptical

Latvians who were questioned about this issue in the center of Riga knew little about this topic.

Veronika, who is over 80 years old, admitted to EFE that she would not know what to do in the event of an air attack because there is “little information”.

Arnis, the owner of the house, told EFE that he would probably not accept the government’s offer to subsidize the shelter on his property. “I’m not convinced that the bomb shelter will save anyone,” he argued.

How are things in Estonia and Lithuania?

In neighboring Estonia, owner associations have been able to apply for funding to build shelters since May last year, and according to local media, 56 applications had been registered by January 2, of which 27 will be funded in a pilot project with a total of €1.3 million.

Lithuania is also more advanced than Latvia in terms of training in this area, and last month Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite announced that 11 municipalities have shelters that can provide protection for 60% of the urban population and 40% of the rest of the population. country.

During an inventory conducted in the spring of 2022, authorities identified approximately 1,800 suitable sites for bomb shelters and prepared guidelines for municipalities to find and select these sites.

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