Romanian soldiers take part in a joint NATO-Georgia military exercise at a military base in Vaziani, outside Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The 'Agile Spirit 2015' maneuvers gathered troops from the U.S., Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia to exercise in support operations and peacekeeping simulations until July 22, 2015. (AP Photo/ Shakh Aivazov)

As Canadian soldiers prepare to deploy to lead a NATO contingent along the Russian border in Latvia, one of the country’s top military intelligence officials hinted that parliamentarians should brace for a smear campaign targeting Canadian and NATO troops by Russian actors.

“I don’t think there’s any question as we deploy troops into Latvia and put assets in and around Eastern Europe that the Russians will take an interest in that and it will at times be an aggressive effort at undermining those efforts,” said Stephen Burt, assistant chief of defence intelligence with the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command.

“I think that there will no doubt be a steady stream of news stories and public incidents that raise questions generally about what NATO soldiers are doing in Eastern Europe.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last summer that Canada would lead one of four multinational NATO battalions to be based in the Baltic with the mission aim of using air and sea patrols to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.

As CBC News reported Thursday morning, the price tag for that mission over the next three years is pegged at $348.6 million. The mission will involve sending 455 troops, armoured vehicles and headquarters staff to Latvia, where Canadian troops will work alongside Italian, Albanian, Polish and Slovenian soldiers.

Burt’s comments echo similar speculation by senior defence officials who’ve spoken to iPolitics in recent weeks — that Canadians should expect to hear allegations of behaviour like rape and sexual harassment by NATO troops on the ground in Latvia put forth by Russian-backed actors in an attempt to discredit the international stability effort.

Such allegations would come on the heels of damning reports of sexual violence by UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic over the past year, as well as several reports of inappropriate but reportedly consensual sexual relations between Canadian peacekeepers and Haitian women over recent years.

When asked by committee members specifically about whether intelligence officials are hearing about specific plans for such propaganda or attempts to begin spreading disinformation on the ground, Burt said he could not speak to specifics but added there is work underway in the intelligence domain to support those being deployed to “actually recognize those things when they’re starting to happen.”

“We are doing things to prepare people,” Burt said. “There are things we can do to train people to recognize these things.”

Tensions between Russia and the West have come to a head in recent years, particularly after the “Colour Revolutions” in Georgia in 2003 and in Ukraine in 2004/2005, and the decision to open NATO membership to Eastern European countries in 2002.

Similar protests in Asia aimed at greater democratization are also widely perceived by the Russian leadership as a threat to their political status quo, and an attempt by the West to expand its own influence at the expense of Russia’s.

At the same time, the Russian economy is being pinched by low oil prices and heavy sanctions imposed by the international community, including the freezing of assets of senior government officials.

“Russia sees itself as being under threat … and there’s a real drive for respect,” said Burt. “They want to be a great power, they want to be seen as being a great power, and they get infuriated when they feel their interests aren’t being taken into account.”

Along with the increasing NATO presence in Eastern Europe, those considerations mean Canadians should expect to see Russia act out to protect what they see as encroachment on their interests in the region.

The challenge will be distinguishing fact from fiction — and given the pattern of past Russian behaviour, that likely won’t be easy, Burt cautioned.

“Unfortunately, the actions that they chose to take are often a bit unsavoury, a bit underhand, difficult to attribute [and] raise uncertainty in the moment about who has done it.”