Kaliningrad & the Baltics.

[SerdarVukota]

Lithuania's TV and Radio commission has refused the country's radio station permission to carry programmes by the Voice of Russia. Officials say the move was needed to guard citizens from the "influence of Russian propaganda".

The Baltic Waves Radio project manager Rimantas Pleikys views it as an act of political censorship. He says the move is strange because The Baltic Waves radio has been re-broadcasting the programmes of various radio stations from both the West and the East for eight years.

“But when we applied for a permission to put the programmes of the voice of Russia on air, the Lithuanian TV and Radio Commission refused us. We view it as an act of a political censorship. It is highly unexpected in this country,” Pleikys said.

He added that before they haven't had any objections against the radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty or Chinese and Polish radio.


www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/18833

[White Cossack]

These vermin should be taught a lesson.

[medo]

jarynrad said:

Those little pesky states do not realize what might come soon.

Btw. Voice of Russia was banned in US long ago.

Is Voice of America banned in (all of) Russia?

I hope so...

[Alexandrus]

Well, the Lithuanians can bash russians all they want since they cant expect such riots as in Lativa or Estonia where over half of the population is russian. Lithuanians arent really great slav lovers, a lot of the once i meet dislike poles to.

[The Ultimate Warrior]

This is the racist hypocrisy of the EU, albanians in macedonia have so much "rights" over the macedonians in their own country its not funny, yet in these baltic countries, where the russians make up half of the populaiton ( more so then on how much the albanians make up in macedonia) they get fvck all and are treated as second rate peoples.

The EU is a racist sh_t hole that has a seceret policy of weakening all slavic peoples and also stengthening the dominance of all germanic countries in the western world ie germany,austria, england, norway,sweden, denmark etc

Fvck the EU

[The Ultimate Warrior]

alexandrus said:

Well, the Lithuanians can bash russians all they want since they cant expect such riots as in Lativa or Estonia where over half of the population is russian. Lithuanians arent really great slav lovers, a lot of the once i meet dislike poles to.

I thought Lithuanians considerded poles as brothers?

From my understanding the poles had only 2 real "friends" in politics, the hungarians and lithuanians, the same kind of the frienship/brotherhood the serbs have with russia and greece?

[morozov]

"Well, the Lithuanians can bash russians all they want since they cant expect such riots as in Lativa or Estonia where over half of the population is russian. "

Not true.
There are 40% Russians in Estonia, 35% in Latvia and well organized Russian minority of 10% in Lithuania.
Take it for granted Lithuanian Russians will react. Sooner or later.

[morozov]

Sorry, opposite way: 40% in Latvia.

[CHORNYVOLK]

Lithuania again demands compensation for "Soviet occupation"

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus is demanding $28 billion compensation from Russia for the Soviet occupation in 1939-1941 and 1945-1991. He said it was a key priority for his country's foreign policy in 2008.
Experts believe Russia has a valid argument for refusing to pay the compensation.
The Lithuanian authorities first raised the compensation question in the early 1990s, and Adamkus formulated his stance in the autumn of 2000. He said then that compensation depended on Russia's maturity and political will, and therefore Lithuania would not appeal to international legal institutions.
Moscow's stance has not changed since then: Russia is refusing to pay. It is generally believed that occupation includes removing material resources from the occupied country, which was not the case in the Baltic countries. Moreover, Lithuania received a territorial bonus from the Soviet Union, i.e., part of East Prussia equal to 30% of Lithuania's territory.
According to statistical data, industrial production in Lithuania increased by approximately 85 times, and agricultural output went up 150% between 1940 and 1990. The country's economic development was financed by cheap oil and petrochemicals, delivered mainly from the Russian Federation. On the whole, Lithuania benefitted by $35 billion from being part of the Soviet Union.
Alexei Makarkin, deputy director general of the Center of Political Technologies, said: "We should scrutinize international law to determine if it was occupation or annexation."
Since the Soviet Union actively invested in the development of the republic annexed to it in 1940, the UN International Court of Justice may refuse to recognize the consequences of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Act as occupation. There are no other signs of occupation. In particular, elections to local and federal bodies of power were held in the republics, a state of emergency was not proclaimed there, and local citizens were not legally discriminated against.
"It is difficult to describe the situation as occupation if we consider the situation objectively," Makarkin said. "If this is a case of annexation, we should balance profit and loss, and I am sure it will be in Russia's favor."
Politicians in Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan demanded compensation from Russia. In late 2007, Mohammad Karim Rahimi, spokesman for Afghanistan's president, said that the government of Afghanistan was considering a demand for compensation from Russia for the occupation of his

[CHORNYVOLK]

Latvia gives go ahead for Nazi march
18:06 | 07/ 03/ 2008




RIGA, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - Authorities in Riga gave the go ahead for a Latvian Legion group to hold a public event to commemorate Latvians who fought for the Nazis during WWII, a parliamentary official said Friday.

Riga authorities turned down four applications by other groups but agreed to allow the Daugavas Vanagi organization, a Latvian veteran group, to hold a short street march on March 16 in the country's capital to honor former Latvian soldiers and members of the Waffen-SS.

The authorities denied the requests by other groups due to previous public order violations.

A Latvian Legion march in 2005 through Riga resulted in dozens of arrests after clashes with Russian activists. The march involved WWII SS veterans and young nationalists.

Latvian Legion day commemorates a historic battle in March 1944 between the Soviet and German armies on the banks of the Velikaya River, northwestern Russia.

Soviet troops began their assault on March 16 forcing German Waffen-SS divisions to withdraw, however Latvian troops held their lines and prevented the Soviets from advancing further.

Although Latvian Legion day, which was revived in the 1990s, does not specifically celebrate the SS by name, claiming to honor all those who fought in the war, the holiday was subsequently cancelled after international pressure.

Relations between Russia, Latvia and Estonia have been marred in the past few years by what Moscow calls the unequal treatment of ethnic Russians, the alleged persecution of Soviet WWII veterans, and the apparent revival of nationalism and fascism in the Baltic States.

Latvia has been criticized by Amnesty International for its treatment of its 400,000 Russian-speaking population who continue to live in the country without citizenship.

[medo]

Report says Estonia discriminates against Russian-speakers

A report by the human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, says Russian speakers continue to experience discrimination in Estonia.

It says that non-Estonian speakers are suffering with many unable to get a job.

Approximately 30 per cent of the country is not fluent in the native language, with many speaking Russian.

The report also criticized extreme policing in Tallinn last year, during riots over the removal of a Soviet monument.

www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/25811

[medo]

I guess these are so called "western values" and "high EU standards on human rights" - to discriminate a large Slavic minority, and to erect monuments to SS troops.

And they preach about "human rights" and "democracy"!?! Pish!

[aleks]

well slavs aren't a very liked peopl in general and estonians are just spiteful from back in the day during the soviet union

[CHORNYVOLK]

In Lithuania, Better Hide That Hammer and Sickle
By Sara Rhodin

MOSCOW — Even this many decades later, the legacy of World War II still arouses tensions in Eastern Europe. Consider the latest row between Russia and its Baltic neighbors.
Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, approved a law last week that bars the public display of Soviet symbols. In what the BBC referred to as the toughest such measure in the former Soviet Union, Lithuania also outlawed the playing of the Soviet national anthem and the public display of photos of high-ranking Soviet officials.
No matter that Lithuania’s law also covered the symbols and icons of Nazi Germany -– Russia quickly took offense at the law anyway. In Moscow, officials declared that the measure was an insult to the Soviet soldiers who defeated the Nazis.
On Sunday, Russia’s president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, issued a statement that condemned “any attempt at the rewriting of history and the revising of the results of World War II.” He was joined by the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko.
A spokesman for the Kremlin told Reuters that the statement was directed toward Lithuania, the other two Baltic states –- Latvia and Estonia — and Ukraine.
Such disputes have repeatedly flared since the Soviet Union’s fall. Last year, when Estonia relocated a statue of a Red Army soldier out of the center of its capital, Tallinn, there were public disturbances in Tallinn and Moscow and accusations of “blasphemy” from the Kremlin. The crisis culminated in a series of cyber-attacks against web sites in Estonia.
Russians viewed the monument as a tribute to their countrymen who fought and died to free Estonia from German occupation. Many Estonians, however, remember that Soviet troops invaded what had been independent Estonia before the Germans did, and see the monument as a symbol of a half-century of Soviet occupation after the war.
Relations have also grown tense over the rights of the Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia. Inability to speak their countries’ primary languages fluently has kept many Russian speakers from qualifying for citizenship after independence.
Last week, President Medvedev announced that such so-called stateless Russian speakers in the Baltics would be allowed to enter Russia without a visa. Estonia responded by asserting that Russia was trying to meddle in Estonia’s efforts to integrate these people into the nation’s social fabric.

thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/200...rssnyt&emc=rss

[CHORNYVOLK]

NATO split over Baltic defense
By Ahto Lobjakas

BRUSSELS - A recent request by the highest military commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the authority to draw up full defense plans for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, could lead to a serious rift in the alliance as it wars over how to deal with Russia.

The move comes just two months after Russia's invasion of Georgia, and at a time when Russia constitutes the only conceivable military threat for the three Baltic members.

When Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the alliance in 2004, Afghanistan and terrorism were NATO's top concerns, whereas Russia was seen as an aspiring strategic partner.

The alliance therefore did not draw up "contingency plans" or full defense strategies for the three Baltic states, a shortcoming which now looks like an anachronism after the events in Georgia exposed NATO's soft underbelly.

Recognizing this, NATO's top commander, General James Craddock, has written to the allies seeking approval to draw up the necessary plans. But getting the go-ahead may prove less than straightforward, as NATO sources say Germany and France have informally opposed Craddock's request.

The issue of contingency planning is extremely sensitive within NATO, not least because the plans are classified. NATO spokesman James Appathurai told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on October 7 that he is not allowed to publicly discuss contingency, and reiterated the alliance's standard pledge to defend all of its members from all threats.

"What I can say is that NATO has had an extremely robust, flexible system in place for 59 years, with hundreds of planners at [NATO headquarters] and elsewhere to develop the necessary plans for the defense of this alliance in any type of situation," Appathurai said.

Most exposed allies
Since their accession to NATO, the Baltic countries have made no secret of their disappointment at the absence of concrete plans to defend them against the Russian threat.

NATO officials privately concede that the three Baltic nations are the most exposed among all 26 allies. Although none of the eastern European allies have full contingency plans drawn up for their defense, some amount of planning has been done for all - except Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Ronald D Asmus, a former senior US diplomat closely involved in NATO's post-Cold War expansion, noted in the Wall Street Journal Europe on August 18 that the alliance "unilaterally refrained from such steps partly as a confidence-building step toward Russia." Asmus now says NATO should reconsider.

All formal defense planning - "for a specific area against a specific threat," as one NATO official put it - requires the unanimous backing of all allies. In the parlance of the alliance, it is a political decision.

The United States and Britain has strongly back contingency plans for the Baltic countries. A senior US official said in Brussels on October 7 that NATO must carry on with its "day-to-day" activities - including contingency planning.

London's Daily Telegraph, which first broke the story, said Craddock recommends Estonia, with its large Russian-speaking minority and increasingly fraught relationship with Moscow, be the first Baltic beneficiary of a NATO military risk-assessment study.

But many continental European allies, led by France and Germany, feel any such move would threaten open confrontation with Russia.

This divergence of views threatens the alliance with a serious rift. After the conflict in Georgia, many analysts see US and European interests parting ways when it comes to Russia, and Germany in particular seems to conclude it cannot afford to alienate Moscow.

Berlin's reasons are complex, stretching from Germany's dependence on Russian energy to strategic balance of power calculations. Chancellor Angela Merkel on October 3 publicly ruled out quick NATO Membership Action Plans (MAPs) for Georgia and Ukraine, saying at a joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St Petersburg that the two countries' immediate integration with NATO is not in German interests. NATO foreign ministers are scheduled to debate the issue in December.

Baltic countries meanwhile fear that the trend towards accommodating Russia could materially affect their security, and that political considerations could begin to erode NATO's commitment to mutual defense.

www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JJ09Ag01.html