Last Wednesday, Estonian Minister of Justice Urmas Reinsalu and his Latvian colleague Dzintars Rasnachs made a joint statement on their intention to consider a claim to Russia for compensation for damage during the so-called ‘Soviet occupation’. This topic is far from new - the Baltic countries began to speak about the ‘occupation’ and demand for compensation for the ‘damage’ on the first days of independence and even in the late USSR, " the analyst of Vestnik Yevgeniya Svatukhina said today in the National Question program.
According to the expert, the popularity of this topic is explained by many reasons: "Firstly, the anti-Russian company is a mean of the national rallying, building up the national identity of the Baltic states. It helps to avert the attention and critical moods of the republics' residents from the leaders of countries into a vector of jingoism and hatred to the external enemy.
The second, the countries have a desire to change extensively the unfavorable intraeconomic situation. At present, the economic context of the state of the republics is determined by a sharp reduction in the financial assistance of the European Union. Which, in turn, is connected both with Brexit (after all, its contributions to the European budget were about 15%) and with the fact that in the period from 2009 to this day, the EU demonstrates low economic growth rates due to the crisis. These circumstances significantly narrow the space for financial maneuvers in Europe and force the EU to proceed with the sequestration of the budget. This will most seriously affect the Baltic countries since they are historically subsidized economies - they have enough internal reserves for only 75-80% of their budgets, " Yevgeniya Svatukhina said.
In addition, the team of US President Donald Trump continues the policy of withdrawing the United States from the post-Soviet space, which was de facto announced by the reduction and cancellation of the USAID programs, the analyst said.
‘’In conclusion, It needs to be noted that the demographic situation in the Baltic states is unique in some way, since never before the indigenous population of the region left it at such a pace as now - neither under the German, Polish or Swedish occupation, nor after the two World wars, " Yevgeniya Svatukhina concluded.
