Defence budgets are surging in the Baltic States

NATO has put thousands of soldiers on alert amid rising tensions between the Baltic States and Russia. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have all radically boosted their defence budgets in recent years as Russia flexes its military muscle. Back in 2005, the three nations spent $929.5m on their militaries and that is set to surge to $2 billion by 2019. Out of the three countries, Lithuania is the biggest spender, set to splurge 600 million on defence this year according to IHS.