They may look like soldiers, but they’re actually ordinary men and women with day jobs who volunteer in the Estonian Defence League, a kind of citizen’s militia.
There are more than 13,000 of them, a civilian resistance force ready to rise up if Estonia were attacked.
Right now, they believe their aggressive neighbor to the east, Russia, is enemy number one, especially after its invasion of Ukraine.
This small country spends big on defense. It’s a fully paid-up member of NATO, and that buys it powerful friends.
This year, U.S. soldiers were deployed to Estonia. American tanks on the streets of Estonia’s capital send a powerful message to the people.