Latvia's Political Flux Caused by Drones || May 18, 2026
Latvia's government is in flux following the firing of the defense minister, his party leaving the coalition, and the prime minister resigning. All of this was caused by some Ukrainian drones being electronically redirected by Russian countermeasures and striking Latvian infrastructure.
This specific event involving Latvia highlights just how quickly drone technology is evolving. The Ukraine War has been a testing ground for all of it, and several countries are now partnering with Ukraine to mass-produce Ukrainian drone technology. The U.S. is not on that list of countries and will likely fall behind the eight ball on the drone front.
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Comments (27)
Peter, please take off those Orange sunglasses. I do like to look at the face of the person who is addressing me. Otherwise a good report, just hard to watch as I could not see your face , just those Orange sunglasses'
Great info! Thanks!
Evening Is there a point where Iran’s neighbours will have more offensive and defensive drone capabilities than Iran Is it possible to state if this will be the case and place a timeline to this process please Michael
Hi. If you read this Pete: How do you find out all this stuff. Your a legend bro. cheers
Trump and unintended consequences do go hand in hand.
PZ's intense hatred for T is tilting his judgment and creating wild unfounded opinions. ALL EMAILS ARE DELETED UPON ENTRY.
Dunno there benhad... you've only to look at what the Trump policies have resulted in to understand the justification for the criticism. We've near record high gas/oil prices resulting from an ill thought out military campaign based solely on airpower. We're now stuck in a no win situation in which we no longer hold all the cards. Couple that with the ever changing tariff policies and alienating our once allies and we're now seeing dramatically increasing CPI and PPI indices (you can look those up if you don't know what they are - basically means inflation is on the rise - everything is gettingmore expensive at a faster rate). And while life is getting more expensive for the average American, Trump insists on building a ballroom and a big arch. All criticism of the Trump administration are totally valid. The US will be in a much worse position at the end of his term.
Since the start of World War I, the vast majority of soldiers' deaths have been caused by artillery, bar none. Now it costs Ukraine $1,500 on average to kill a Russian soldier with an FPV drone, and they are targeted, which means no more blanketing an area with artillery, hoping to kill someone with several dozen $3,000 shells that also destroys any nearby infrastructure. This is a complete change in warfare; it will never be the same.
Correct. Ukraine now has the world's most advance military. Why? Because they let the young kids under 30 take charge, who were not tied to the Soviet model of human wave charges and who embraces modern tech to keep their fellow Ukrainian's alive
So, Russia was lobotomized when Ukraine went its own way? Explains a lot.
I would like your comments on this video: The US has invested in deep water submarine strategies for the last 40 years and have completely neglected shallow water submarine strategies. This is why the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed for the foreseeable future... and the red sea might be next.. or Malacca.. or the Suez or Turkish Straits... or Tiawan... and yes the Chinese have worked with Iran on this technology. Could it possible to be used to close the Panama Canal???? As Always... thx https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGspXolrAvI
I remember 12 years ago in an ethics course at university, talking about the idea of automated kill bots, and the ethical dilemmas you would come into with it… I don’t think anyone at the time fully realized how much we’ve essentially abandoned our humanity… that’s not to say like all individuals are evil but our society and it’s contempt for human life is plainly evident. Like 1/3 of the US voting age population voted for a guy who cheated on his wife and was on Epstein’s Island and they think that that is a good thing and wish they could have been there with him. What were we to expect when it came to warfare and taking human decision-making out of the process
I agree. And I bet none the administration's leaders or cabinet took that class! Too much introspection.
Latvians have this stupid tradition where they comment "I see post about Latvia, I press like" on every video on internet. For this video it would be hillarious!
I've been talking about landmark assisted navigation and vision last mile targeting for two years now...you can literally build it in your basement for a couple hundred bucks with 12nm semiconductors for the logic. All I'm saying is, Intel is a good stock.
Ukraine doesn't need it's drone operators on the frontline anymore. They can sit on mama's couch eating cheetos 100 miles away. Work part time and get game points. This doubles their man and woman resources. Instead of drafting 27 year olds they can get 17 year olds. They get game points and work part-time. Most of all they can't be targeted by rusky's. Ukraine is getting more than drones. Germany gave them a butt load of patriots just for access to drone intelligence. Japan changed it's rules to allow for overseas sales of munitions. Japan builds patriots. --- oh news flash Iran's nuke stockpile probably wasn't where they said it was, duh.
Beautiful summation. Well said.
Thank you PZ team for bringing us your informed summation of world events. Greatly appreciated as always!
Thank you, Mr. Zeihan! Slava Ukraini! Heroiam Slava. You're one of the heroes of nowadays as you're not afraid of telling the truth every day
Trump is not a serious individual. And he's dragging the US down with him.
trumph is a tool , it's intentional
Trump and shooting yourself in the foot is now synonymous...
"I saw a guy Trump himself at the range the other day"
Great insights, thanks 👍 Drone evolution certainly is a game changer
Generals from Attila to Patton would drool and beg for this stuff. Unfortunately, the USA doesn't have a Patton anymore.
Patton wanted to rearm Germany to go after the soviets. They should have listened to him in 45. Too bad he had that convenient car accident.
American living in Latvia here; first, the current population of Latvia is 1.8 million, not 2.5 million; second, great to see this topic come up here. The drone excursions here continued over the weekend and there was another air alert yesterday. Beyond the drone tech angle of this story, the politically interesting part of these resignations is that it opens up a chance for the oligarch candidate, Ainārs Šlesers, in the fall elections and the fear is Latvia falling to an Orban-like leader. Stay tuned...