From defpro.com:  The 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, deployed from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, assumed command of the NATO Baltic air policing mission Sept. 1 from the Polish air force at Lithuania Air Force Air Base.

From Baltic Reports:  Russia’s representative at NATO is accusing Estonian politicians of sabotaging their country’s relationship with Russia with a lack of communication and paranoia.

From the Economist:  Listen to critics of Barack Obama’s administration and the story of American policy in eastern Europe is of a grand betrayal, featuring the binning of a promised missile-defence system, the freezing of NATO enlargement and the headlong pursuit of better ties with Russia.

From the Economist:  In the heart of NATO’s military headquarters, SHAPE, near the Belgian city of Mons, an unspoken revolution is taking place: planners are thinking about how to defend eastern European members from Russian attack.

From DPA:  Leaders of the Baltic states thanked the United States on Friday for refusing to recognize their countries' annexation by the Soviet Union during and after World War II.

From Baltic Reports:  The Estonian minister of defense strongly criticized Russia on Tuesday for deploying Iskander missiles in its Leningrad Military District, a move the Russians announced over the weekend.

From the Telegraph:  British troops will be withdrawn from the Sangin area of Afghanistan later this year, Defence Secretary Liam Fox told MPs. He said the UK had agreed to a redeployment which will see US Marines assume responsibility for the area where nearly a third of UK deaths in the conflict have occurred.

From Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver:  EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has hired a Polish secret service agent to be the main architect of internal security in the European External Action Service (EEAS).