The Great Balts: The Russian factor, NATO, European “prosperity”
A personal assessment.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE BAR BELOW TO READ A SPECIAL PREFATORY NOTE BY THE MANAGING EDITOR OF THE RUSSIA DESK
[learn_more caption=”PREFATORY NOTE”] The saga of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the shores of the Baltic Sea is an ancient story, intersecting at various historical moments of what we refer to in a general way as “Europe”. Since 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, those small states—formerly part of both the Russian Empire and the USSR —have been independent. “Back in the European fold,” delighted Western spokesmen declared in 1991. “Back in the heart of Europe.” During the Cold War, the question of the Baltic States was one of the most disputed and controversial issues between East and West.
Unlike Ukraine today, the Baltic States then exited apparently easily from a Russia in disarray. They joined both the European Union and NATO and today even host NATO military bases right on Russia’s borders, even though remaining dependent on Russia for energy and despite their large ethnic Russian populations who do not want to leave their homes and move to Russia.
Approximately 30% of the six million total population of the three states are ethnic Russian. Although Russian economic sanctions have hit the Balts hard, Latvia for example asks for an even greater NATO/EU/US presence. On the one hand, the USA promises more military presence there, while on the other, Russia continually issues warnings against increased NATO presence in East Europe. Though there is a tendency to generalize and toss all three Baltic states into the same pot, they are in fact very diverse one from the other. Estonian is a Finnic language and the country’s people consider themselves Nordic. Latvian and Lithuanian are Indo-European languages, though the countries’ histories are vastly different: Lithuania was part of a major European empire for many centuries, while Latvia and Estonia farther north were united for many centuries. The three countries became part of the Russian empire in the 18th century, then became independent after WWI. They were occupied (according to the Baltic States) or voluntarily joined the USSR in the 1940s. They have again existed as sovereign states for now fifty years. But they are poor, while the diaspora of these peoples is worldwide, from Poland and Sweden to the USA and also to neighboring Russia. —Gaither Stewart [/learn_more]
The Great Balts: The Russian factor, NATO, European “prosperity”
A personal assessment.
By Alevtina Rea
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he subject of Russia in the Baltic countries is definitely a sore one. The ghost of former co-existence and lingering insecurity still haunts Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, even if they became independent entities 23 years ago, in September 1991. And even, as experts note, they left the USSR on very favorable terms: no debts and keeping ownership of companies that were part of all-Union property. Despite this noble gesture on the part of Russia, as far as I heard, these three states are obsessed with their Soviet past and hostile to their former partner.
In fact, the question of the so-called Soviet occupation has been elevated in the Baltic countries to the status of one of the main principles of construction of a new national identity. As a result, discrimination toward ethnic Russians and paranoid Russophobia are a common practice in all three. What’s more, egged on by the West, they have turned into barking mongrels attacking an imposingly serene giant bear, who quietly goes about his business without paying much attention to these small and occasionally mean attacks.
SIDEBAR
Obama reassures the Baltics of protection against “Russian aggression.”
(Continued from above the sidebar)
After joining the European Union, the Baltic countries began to receive substantial financial assistance for the development of certain areas of their economy within the Brussels framework of leveling regional development. Thus, in 2004-2006 Lithuania received from various European funds 1.7 billion Euros, Latvia – 1 billion Euros, and Estonia – 800 million Euros. The planned allocation for 2007-2013 was, respectively, 6.8 billion Euros, 4.6 billion Euros, and 3.4 billion Euros.
Thus, these three overgrown “kids” were never weaned from the accustomed donation/external support scheme, with the only difference that now they began to receive subsidies not from Moscow but from Brussels. However, there was and is a very significant difference between the Soviet Union and the European Union. EU membership not only provides a multimillion dollar infusion; it also imposes severe restrictions on the economies of the member states, which led to the destruction of many of the competitive enterprises in the Baltic States. This same pattern is currently being imposed on Ukraine, with the EU calling for a virtual dismantlement of the nation’s industrial base. In the Balts, a well-developed sugar industry in Latvia has been eliminated, in keeping with the onset of 2006 EU reforms – under the pretext of opening the market to third countries and declining sugar prices.
RUSSIA DESK
Gaither Stewart Managing Editor
Alevtina Rea Deputy Editor • Paul Carline Deputy Editor
ANTI-RUSSIAN PARANOIA
Being so paranoid about anything Russian, the Baltic States turned their backs on their comfortable past in the former Soviet Union, snubbed Russia on the way to their supposedly prosperous European development “future”, ruined their industrial base and agriculture at the first order of the EU brass, and, basically, found themselves in the demeaning position of cheap laborers of their idol – western capitalism. Deceived and manipulated!
Discrimination of the Russians as a linguistic minority in the Baltic countries—a silly, self-wounding notion catering to cheap chauvinism— is expressed in a gradual narrowing of the scope of the Russian language. According to Wikipedia, “As of 2011, there are 1,052,520 ethnic Russians in the Baltic States (Latvia 556,422, Estonia 321,198, Lithuania 174,900), having declined from 1,726,000 in 1989.” Although the Russians and Russian-speakers make up a large part of Baltic States population, they are deprived of the right to appeal in Russian through the administrative channels, they have limited opportunities for education in Russian, and they are denied the right to receive official information in Russian. According to historian W. Shnirelman, Latvia and Estonia especially are guilty of political discrimination. Most of the ethnic Russians didn’t receive respective citizenship of these countries and have been excluded from the political process.
Russia, once again, is being forced to divert precious income to defense expenditures. Fortunately, the nation has a strong scientific and technological base to build on and remains highly original in its weapons designs.
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Given the latest demonization of Russia by Western media scoundrels, I was curious to investigate the Russian barometer as far as the Baltic States are concerned. I was interested in three simple questions: 1. What do the Balts think about Russia nowadays? 2. What is their relationship toward ethnic Russians who live in Baltic States? 3. What is their relationship toward NATO? Olga, our source in Moscow, has the following to report:
“The Baltic countries present a very complex question. I communicate with the Lithuanians and Latvians who live and work in Moscow. But I have not been there myself for a while, and there are less and less of my friends who stay in these countries. Some of them went to Europe, but the majority went to Russia.
“The positions of those who came to live in Russia are diametrically different. Some people, quite successfully, combine their work with volunteering at the embassy and with the Diaspora, but, at the same time, they harbor a negative attitude toward the country where they found shelter and a loaf of bread, so to speak. One such friend has a farm in Lithuania; she goes there to sow, plow and harvest, but right now she cannot do anything with the fruits of her labor. According to EU legal restrictions, she has no right to sell her produce in (Western) European countries. Hence, her harvest is rotting. As she says, mice are eating it.
Position of the Balts in Europe
“Many Balts who live in Russia are obsessed with a strange feeling that they are spied on by the KGB all the time (KGB is long gone, but they are still paranoid about it), and, basically, they look ridiculous and pathetic. Of course, we do not say anything to them – and what could you say, really, when they open their eyes wide and whisper that someone is shadowing them? Who instilled this paranoia in them? Because of this nonsense, we try to cut our communication with them to a minimum.
“Once upon a time, in the Soviet Union, the Baltic republics were considered almost an island of Europe and freedom, and now they are some poor excuse … There are, of course, some very successful people from over there who are internally free and totally adapted to their life in Russia, and they have tons of friends! These people are of what one might call “a normal psychology.” But those who, for whatever reasons, are easily influenced and clearly manipulated – ended up zombified to such a degree that even many years of residence in Russia cannot teach them anything. Sometimes I think that they are secretly gathering in some undisclosed hangout and singing either Lithuanian or Latvian songs. Who needs them with their fears and hatred?
“Occasionally, I ask those zombified, ‘Why did you come here, if you hate Russia so much?’ They say, ‘And where could we go?’ So strange! For example, if I hate America, never in my life will I go there! Some double standards are at play, nothing else! In my opinion, having double standards is immoral.
“The situation with NATO is definitely a tricky question. It is not just black and white … On the one hand, some people welcome them but complain that the country should feed them. Quite often, NATO officials behave impudently toward the local residents. The situation has sort of calmed down a bit, but still, they are disliked because of their rudeness and arrogance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CounterPunch, a leading left journal of fact and opinion. Ms. Rea is currently a deputy editor with The Greanville Post’s Russia Desk, and a contributing author to CounterPunch, Cyrano’s Journal Today, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. She can be reached at rea.alya@gmail.com.