In this Friday, May 9, 2014 file photo Russian bombers Tu-22M3 fly in formation during a Victory Day Parade, which commemorates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany in Moscow, Russia. Russia plans to station state-of-the art missiles to its westernmost Baltic exclave and deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Crimea as part of massive war games intended to showcase the nations resurgent military power amid bitter tensions with the West over Ukraine. AP

RIGA, Latvia NATO allies are scrambling to protect vulnerable Baltic partners from the threat of hybrid warfare, a Russian tactic that officials and experts say is based on deception rather than formal declaration of war.

Russian President Vladimir Putins use of anonymous little green men to slice Crimea away from Ukraine last year sent alarm bells ringing throughout the three small Baltic NATO and EU members.

They endured decades of Soviet occupation after the Red Army rolled in during World War II.While a full-scale invasion is improbable now, hybrid meddling and destabilization tactics designed to test NATOs commitment to collective defense are not.

Putins brand of hybrid warfare also relies on misinformation, bribery, economic pressure, which are designed to undermine the nation, according to Latvian Defence Minister Raimonds Vejonis.

Trojan Horse

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite did not mince her words when she said: The first stage of confrontation is taking place I mean informational war, propaganda and cyber attacks. So we are already under attack.

According to James Sherr of Britains Chatham House think-tank, hybrid warfare is designed to cripple a state before that state even realizes the conflict has begun.

Its a model of warfare designed to slip under NATOs threshold of perception and reaction.

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow has called it a modern example of the ancient Trojan Horse tactic.

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NATO allies come to grips with Russias deceptive hybrid warfare