Kaliningrad & the Baltics.

[TsarSamuil]

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US tanks arrive in Latvia to ward off ‘perceived’ Russian threat (VIDEO)

RT.com
October 16, 2014 14:30

US tanks have arrived in Latvia as NATO flexes its muscles in an apparent show of strength towards Moscow. The machines are being deployed across the Baltic States and Poland over the next two weeks and will be used for training exercises.

The 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood in Texas, was deployed in Adazi, not far from the Latvian capital of Riga. 150 soldiers used five M1A2 Abrams tanks, as well as 11 Bradley Fighting Vehicles in a training demonstration.

The commander of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, John Di Giambattista said, "This is more than just a training mission. This is more than just a trip across the Atlantic; this is more than a multinational training exercise. This is how we demonstrate our nations' commitment to reassure our NATO allies," Reuters reports

Latvians, as well as their Baltic neighbors and Poland have welcomed the deployment of the troops and tanks as a deterrent to the perceived threat of Russia. This is one of the largest placements of US military forces into part of the former Soviet Union.

Martins Liberts, who is the Commander of the Latvian Infantry Brigade, said that it was good for his country’s army to work with up to date military equipment.

"To be honest, since independence, we have not had the chance to work with tanks as allies, but we will do that now. It will be a unique experience," he said, according to Reuters.

The Abrams M1A2 is an upgrade of the Abram M1A1, which was used in combat during the 1991 Gulf War. The Abrams are armed with a M256A1 120mm smooth bore cannon, while they also feature one M240 7.62mm machine gun.The combat force consists of around 700 troops and 20 tanks.

“The purpose is to be a very visible demonstration of commitment to our allies. We may take slightly longer to deploy than lighter forces, but there’s nothing like a tank if you really want to achieve effect,” said Captain John Farmer, public affairs officer for Ironhorse, as the 1st Cavalry Division is otherwise known in early October, before the deployment was made.

The 1st Cavalry Division will replace a number of lightly armed US paratroopers, who were deployed in March, following a referendum in Crimea, where local residents elected to cede from Ukraine and saw the peninsula becoming part of Russia.

The 1st Cavalry Division has a long history, having been formed in 1921. Since then the division fought in the Second World War, as well as subsequently in Korea and Vietnam. In the 21st Century, the unit has been involved in tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. The division has also hit the big screen, having appeared in the American Vietnam War epic, Apocalypse Now.

These are not the first tanks to have been deployed in Europe since the end of the Cold War. In January this year, 29 Abrams M1A2 tanks were sent to Germany to replace older versions of the same military vehicles.

The Abrams tanks will join 33 M2A3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles as well as numerous other heavy support vehicles that will be positioned at Grafenwohr, which is around 220 kilometers north of Munich and used for training exercises.

The deployment of the 1st Cavalry Division in Latvia is a direct result of an agreement for creating a rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe, following the NATO summit in the UK in September.

“This is a demonstration of our solidarity and resolve,” said former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the summit in Cardiff in early September. "Should you even think of attacking one ally, you will be facing the whole alliance,” the former Danish Prime Minister added.

The Baltic States have been among the most vocal advocates of NATO strengthening in the region, but the organization is bound by a 1997 agreement with Russia, which bars it from placing permanent bases in Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. This can be circumvented by staging constant rotations of “exercises” that can in practice amount to the same thing.

[TsarSamuil]

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rt.com/news/200695-uk-jets-latvian-plane-attack/

The Russians are coming! UK media hypes up RAF interception of Latvian plane.

RT.com
October 30, 2014 06:21

Two Royal Air Force jets reportedly threatened to shoot down a Latvian cargo plane, rushing at supersonic speeds to intercept it, after the plane failed to respond to air traffic control over Kent in Southern England and sent authorities into panic mode.

“I am instructed by Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom to warn you that, if you do not respond immediately to my orders, you will be shot down,” radioed one of the jets, according to an audio recording circulating in UK media.

The incident occurred at about 5pm local time after the Latvian Antonov An-26 aircraft failed to make contact with air traffic controllers.

British Typhoons were tasked with intercepting the cargo plane. “To fulfill their quick reaction role, they were cleared to travel at supersonic speed,” an RAF spokesperson said, adding that the speed explains the loud noise people heard in the air.

Many locals took to Twitter, describing how their houses shook after the loud bangs.

Communications with the civilian pilots were restored only after the jets intercepted the plane.

The Latvian plane was then escorted to London’s Stansted Airport at around 5:20 pm “All three people who were on board have been spoken to by police,” AP quoted Essex Police spokeswoman Emma Thomas as saying. “It was established that everything was in order and the reason for the short loss of communication was due to a change in airspace jurisdiction.”

Russian planes everywhere

The excitement surrounding the intercept – apparently based on post-9/11 terrorist attack fears – came amid a heightened terror alert in the UK at the time of the allied military campaign against the Islamic State.

Media reports mirrored the panic frenzy triggered by the incident, but in a peculiar way: first saying that the cargo plane was “Russian” and then switching to a “Russian-made” reference.

Both takes were wrong: the Antonov design bureau, the producer of An-26 planes, is a Ukrainian company founded in Soviet times, and the plane in question belonged to a Latvian-registered company, ironically called RAF-Avia.

However, the British media seemingly capitalized on the latest NATO reports of “unusual” increased activity of Russian military aircrafts over the Atlantic and the Black Sea.

NATO stated that it has intercepted four groups of Russian planes since Tuesday. “These sizeable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace,” the alliance said.

Most media reports based on the NATO statement failed to mention that the Russian planes did not cross any borders and remained within international airspace in every mentioned case.

Four Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers were spotted participating in a military exercise over the Norwegian Sea early on Wednesday. “We see Russian aircraft near our airspace on a regular basis but what was unusual is that it was a large number of aircraft and pushed further south than we normally see,” Reuters quoted a Norwegian military spokesman as saying.

In another incident on Wednesday, two Tu-95s were being monitored by Turkish aircraft over the Black Sea.

[TsarSamuil]

Iron Sword 2014: NATO stages massive military drill in Lithuania.

RT.com
November 03, 2014 12:20

Servicemen from nine NATO member states are taking part in nearly two weeks of military exercise in Lithuania. What used to be a national military drill has become a multinational NATO war game in response to events in neighboring Ukraine.

2,500 servicemen from Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Lithuania, Luxemburg, the UK and the US are taking part in the Iron Sword 2014 military drill in Lithuania, November 2-14.

The troops will be training “interoperability in NATO units, co-ordination of actions and readiness to complete defensive and offensive operations,” reported Lithuania’s DELFI news agency.

The exercises will be conducted mainly in two locations: Silvestras Zukauskas training range in Pabrade, and at the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas Mechanised Infantry Battalion’s training area in Rukla.

After the drills, about 140 members of Hungary’s 5th Bocskai Istvan Infantry Brigade will stay in Lithuania till the end of the year, forming a joint NATO battalion, a task force consisting also of Lithuanian and US soldiers currently deployed in Lithuania.

With NATO military exercises being conducted in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States on a regular basis, the US-led alliance continues to boost its military presence near Russian borders.

In March, the US deployed a dozen F-16 fighter jets and nearly 300 service personnel to Poland. The Polish defense ministry explained that this move was part of a training exercise in response to the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.

Simultaneously, four American F-15 fighter jets were deployed to Lithuania in response to “Russian aggression in Ukraine and increased military activity in Kaliningrad,” the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said.

In June, US European Command (EUCOM) announced that about 100 instructors are set to train spec ops teams in former Soviet bloc states to ‘message’ Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine.

In early September, following a NATO conference in Wales, the alliance shared plans to create a new rapid reaction force of at least 4,000 troops. It would be established in Eastern Europe, ready to be deployed within 48 hours.

In October, news came that US weaponry had arrived in Latvia, Lithuania’s neighbor. The 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood in Texas, was deployed in Adazi, not far from the Latvian capital of Riga. 150 soldiers used five M1A2 Abrams tanks, as well as 11 Bradley Fighting Vehicles in a training demonstration.

In mid-October, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel declared that US armed forces “must deal with a revisionist Russia - with its modern and capable army - on NATO's doorstep.”

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reacted to Hagel’s hawkish speech by saying that the US had been “stubbornly approaching … closer to our doors.”

"Chuck Hagel's thesis on the necessity for the American army to 'deal' with 'modern and capable' Russian armed forces on NATO's doorstep is of grave concern," TASS quoted Shoigu as saying. "This testifies to the fact that the Pentagon is working on scenarios for operations at the borders of our country.”

In September, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov once again pointed out that NATO expansion in Eastern Europe undermines the whole European security system.

“I believe that NATO expansion is a mistake. To a certain degree, it is certainly a provocation,” Lavrov told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York in late September.

“It is an irresponsible policy that undermines commitments to build a common security system in Europe, based on equality of rights for all, regardless of alignment or non-alignment with any military-political bloc,” Lavrov said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

[TsarSamuil]

Sever diplomatic relations with Lithuania over president’s interview - Communists.

RT.com
November 21, 2014 11:21

A Communist Party MP suggests Moscow should sever diplomatic relations with Vilnius and to slap additional sanctions on Lithuania after its president called Russia a “terrorist state” in a radio interview.

“I want to charge the International Relations committee with a task to prepare a statement and maybe even an order to introduce new economic sanctions against Lithuania, or maybe even a motion to stop diplomatic relations. It is unacceptable that a president of a nation utters such rude and cynical words,” deputy head of the parliamentary Communist Party Nikolay Kolomeytsev said at the State Duma session on Friday.

After this, Speaker Sergey Naryshkin asked the Communists to officially submit the motion into the chamber.

Kolomeytsev’s initiative came after President Dalia Grybauskaitė said in an interview on Thursday with Lithuanian radio LRT that Russia was conducting aggression against Ukraine and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of intent “to occupy other regions and to drastically reorganize international security in the world.”

“We’re facing a situation in which some of our neighbors are becoming a terrorist country,” she said.

These words immediately drew criticism from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which issued a special statement claiming that Grybauskaitė had outperformed even the most notorious nationalist radicals in Kiev.

“All that she says is not helping, but only complicates the search of solutions to the Ukrainian crisis,” spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said in the document published on the ministry’s official website.

“Political wisdom is determined not by an obsessive desire to provoke conflicts and insult neighbors, but by the ability to find constructive solutions based on the real situation that has established itself in Ukraine, and for which foreign politicians should share the blame.

“It would be better if the Lithuanian President stopped suffering from complexes over her Soviet past that apparently make her feel ‘holier than the Pope’,” Lukashevich added.

Russian law provides that diplomatic relations with foreign countries are established or stopped by presidential orders, but the president does this only after official consultations with the parliament.

[TsarSamuil]

Filthy Nazi Balts!

Lithuania: Police RAID Russian schools over 'paramilitary camp' allegation.

RuptlyTV
Dec 3, 2014



SOT, Ramutis Yantsyavichyus, Chief Prosecutor of the Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office (in Lithuanian): "No one was charged in this case yet, no one detained as well. I believe that the searches did not interfere with the conduct of school classes. Today we have carried out legal proceedings - society reacts with hostility of course. But all comments would be premature, we do not want to harm anyone."


Lithuanian prosecutors and police searched two Russian secondary schools in Vilnius, Wednesday purportedly as part of an investigation into trips by pupils to alleged "paramilitary" summer camps in Russia.

Several pupils of the two secondary schools allegedly spent their holidays at a Russian paramilitary camp dubbed 'Soyuz' (Union). The chief prosecutor of the Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office Ramutis Yantsyavichyus stated that nobody had been arrested yet. According to the prosecutor, the searches did not disturb classes.

Earlier in October, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Lithuania accused school children from Vilnius of treason after they went to a supposed Russian paramilitary training camp. In fact, the children went to an ordinary resort camp in Shchelkovo district near Moscow.

[TsarSamuil]

Italian ex-MEP arrested, kicked out of Estonia & called Russian ‘agent of influence’

RT.com
December 17, 2014 19:17

Journalist and former European Parliament member, Giulietto Chiesa of Italy, was detained by the Tallinn police due to his pro-Russian views, which make him a threat to Estonia’s national security, the country’s Foreign Ministry told RT in an e-mail.

Chiesa spent several hours behind bars after being taken into custody from his hotel in center of the Estonian capital Monday.

The police told the Italian politician that he had violated a ban on entering the country imposed on him on December 13.

The 74-year-old politician arrived in the Baltic country to give a speech entitled, “Should Europe be afraid of Russia?” to the members of a local media club.

“Due to the current activities of Mr Giulietto Chiesa, there is a good reason to believe that he is involved in the Russian influence operations and his stay in Estonia may pose threat to Estonia’s security, its public order and public safety,” Mari-Liis Valter, Estonia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, wrote in answer to questions from RT.

The decision to refuse Chiesa entry to Estonia was made by the country’s Interior Ministry, Valter said.

“Every country has the right to impose a ban on entry to a person on the grounds of threat to public order or national security,” she said.

According to the spokeswoman, the ban on Chiesa “didn’t restrict his freedom of speech, but protected Estonian national security and public order.”

Among other things, Estonia is displeased that “Chiesa has defended and justified acts by Mr. Arnold Meri, who was on trial for crimes against humanity that took place in the 1940s.”

Before his death in 2009 Meri, a World War II hero and former Soviet official, was on trial for what Tallinn deems his involvement in deportation of Estonians to the remote areas in Siberia.

Chiesa left Estonia for Moscow by train the next morning day after being released from custody.

At a media conference in the Russian capital, he said that his Estonian entry ban will be in power for just a single month.

“It expires on January 15, 2015… and I intend to return there [to Estonia] if I’m invited and organize the conference, which I was prevented from staging this time. So, I plan to take a flight to Tallinn on January 15 or 16,” the former MEP told the journalists in Russian.

The Italian believes that he was banned from Estonia because the local authorities “knew my stance and were afraid that I’ll voice it publicly.”

“It’s obvious that they violated all judicial rules of the European Union. I’m confident that they’re above the law. Despite being situated in Europe, Estonia doesn’t act like a European state. They probably think that they live on another continent or another planet,” Chiesa said.

[TsarSamuil]

Watch out for 'Mr. Pu'!..

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rt.com/news/222995-lithuania-invasion-survival-manual/

​Lithuania prints ‘Russian invasion’ survival manual.

RT.com
January 15, 2015 17:13

As NATO increases its presence in the Baltic region amid worries of “Russian aggression,” Lithuania has published a manual which advises its citizens how to survive a war on its soil.

“Keep a sound mind, don’t panic and don’t lose clear thinking,” the manual advises. “Gunshots just outside your window are not the end of the world.”

Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas unveiled the 100-page public information pamphlet last Tuesday at a press conference in Vilnius. The book, “How to act in extreme situations or instances of war” aims to educate the country’s citizens on what to do in the case of an invasion.

The manual instructs Lithuanians how to “act during the organization of civil resistance, but also how to act under battlefield conditions," in addition to containing information on governmental changes following a declaration of war and procedures for evacuating a building, according to Olekas.

The book suggests demonstrations and strikes or “at least doing your job worse than usual” as means of resisting foreign occupation. It also advises citizens to use social media to organize resistance and promotes staging cyber-attacks against the enemy.

Olekas said the project, a collaboration between the Defense Ministry and Lithuania’s Fire Brigade was prompted by “Russia’s recurring aggression against its neighbors – presently in Ukraine.” Copies of the pamphlet are to be distributed to libraries, secondary schools and non-governmental organizations, while an online version will be available for download from the Defense Ministry’s website, Olekas said.

The Lithuanian government is also considering requiring all future buildings to include a bomb shelter.

Lithuania’s Russian minority is around 6 percent according to the country’s last census in 2011, unlike the two other Baltic enclaves, Estonia and Latvia where Russian speakers account for approximately one-quarter of the population.

Recently, President Dalia Grybauskaite, an outspoken critic of Russia, has moved to restrict the broadcast of Russian state channels in Lithuania.

NATO’s General Philip Breedlove announced this week that the alliance was looking to beef up its operations in the Baltic region.

"There will be several adaptations of our exercise program. The first series of changes will not be an increase in number but they will be to group them together … to better prepare our forces and to allow nations to work together as a NATO force, but we are looking at increasing some exercises," he said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Ruptly news agency on Thursday captured footage of a train loaded with various American military vehicles rolling through Klaipeda, a coastal town in western Lithuania.

In November, during the Iron Sword military drill, 2,500 servicemen from nine NATO countries staged a two-week training operation in Lithuania. Iron Sword was originally planned as a purely Lithuanian endeavor but was expanded in response to the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine.

[TsarSamuil]

rt.com/news/223715-putin-board-game-estonia/

Board game about repelling ‘Comrade Pu’s Russian invasion’ hits Estonia.

RT.com
January 17, 2015 18:01

A crowd-funded ‘patriotic’ board game about reclaiming Estonia after a Russian invasion has become a hit in the Baltic state, feeding on popular fears about the geopolitical ambitions of the country’s eastern neighbor.

Named ‘Comrade Pu conquers Estonia’ – the monicker is a popular local nickname for Vladimir Putin – the board game features a recognizable caricature of the Russian president on the front of its box, though it does not mention him by name.

In a variant of Snakes and Ladders, the players have to ‘fight back’ from the Western border of the state, which became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, with the help of dice. Instead of ladders, players pull out cards that may help or hinder their progress. “Pu wins the Nobel Peace Prize” sets the player one step back, while “Kazakhstan is prevented from joining Russia’s side” lets them get one ahead.

“The idea of the game was born during the events of last spring in Ukraine,” Taavi Emajoe told the Russian-language Delfi website in Estonia. “We hope people find the game humorous. There is nothing unethical about political satire.”

Emajoe, who was working on another game with two other young designers, before the spark of inspiration, says the game wouldn’t have worked without Putin.

“We chose Putin not to create animosity towards him, but because he is such a multi-dimensional political figure. Most of the ideas in the game are derived directly from his persona.”

After easily passing the €1,500 (US$1,734) funding requirement on the local version of Kickstarter, the game has now hit the shelves, retailing at €23.45 ($27).

The manager of Tallinn’s leading Apollo bookshop, Liis Paas, told Delfi that the game has been “attracting a heightened level of attention” from curious shoppers. However, the manager did not elaborate whether interest had transformed into sales.

Estonia is historically sensitive about being invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and local politicians still frequently evoke the specter of a Russian invasion, despite the country being a member of NATO and the EU.

Meanwhile, satirical board games about Putin – often based on Snakes and Ladders – have previously appeared in Russian and Western media following a whirlwind year for the Kremlin, mostly as playful illustrations, not actual games to be played with pieces and dice.

Satirical board games have enjoyed a mixed history, with acclaim depending largely on the players’ political orientation. The US board game War on Terror – which satirizes US foreign policy and forces players to temporarily don balaclavas as they face American wrath – is still popular, while the pre-WWII Juden Raus, in which German players had to “round up Jews” and “push them off the board” enjoys a different sort of notoriety.


Comrade Pu conquers Estonia (Photo: hooandja.ee)Comrade Pu conquers Estonia (Photo: hooandja.ee)

[TsarSamuil]

Dark past: Latvia blocks Nazi Holocaust exhibition in Paris due to image fears.

RT.com
January 21, 2015 04:27

Latvia has cancelled a Holocaust exhibition in Paris for the fear of tarnishing the country’s image as the Baltic nation currently holds the EU presidency. The exposition was to tell the story of child prisoners at a concentration camp near Riga.

The display was organized by historians from Latvia, Russia and Belarus and was scheduled to open on January 25 under the title ‘Hijacked childhood. Victims of Holocaust as seen by the child prisoners of Nazi concentration camp Salaspils.’ Salaspils is southeast of the Latvian capital, Riga.

The exhibition was all set to open its doors, however, there proved to be a last minute hitch: the Latvian delegation to the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) decided to block the planned project. One of the organizers, the head of a Moscow-based history group, said that the decision was explained by that it would “harm Latvia’s image during its EU presidency.”

“The fact that Latvia’s Permanent Delegation to UNESCO has blocked this exhibition is in my view, a strange and unpleasant surprise for us,” said Aleksandr Dyukov of the Historical Memory Foundation, which was reported by the RIA Novosti news agency.

It is unclear how revealing Nazi crimes could harm Latvia’s present-day image, Dyukov said. The country could only suffer if Latvia looked at the Nazi’s crimes as its own, he added: “The sad fact is that it seems to be that way.”

The exhibition was meant to be an international project with a goal of demonstrating that “no crimes are ever committed against just one nation.”

The Salaspils concentration camp was created at the end of 1941 and was used to imprison Jews and those who came into contact with the Nazi’s around Latvia-Belarus border. The camp was located just 18 kilometers (11 miles) away from Riga.

A source at UNESCO said the exhibition would have consisted of 12 stands with photographs and historic documents. A screen would have also shown accounts of child prisoners.

The decision to cancel was reportedly made during talks with Russia, Belarus and Latvia. The Latvian delegation is said to have asked for the exhibition to be abandoned after it discovered that a Russian citizen considered “persona non grata” in Latvia was one of the members of the exposition’s scientific board, RIA Novosti reported, citing a source at UNESCO.

More than 100,000 people lost their lives in the camp, according to data from the Nuremberg trials protocols. Many perished due to illnesses, intense heavy labor and inhuman treatment.

Riga’s stance has been controversial regarding the assessment of its Nazi past. Latvian officials have been criticized for plainly presenting the Nazis as a viable opposition to the Soviets. Parts of the Baltic nation supported pro-Nazi movements in the country while rejecting the Soviet soldiers’ crucial role in World War II.

In 2012, a video was released of two men in Waffen SS uniforms conducting a kindergarten lesson, complete with handouts, grenades and pistols. The class took place on March 16; the day, which commemorates hundreds of Latvians joining the Nazi’s to fight against the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

The Latvian legion of the Waffen SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians and was split into two divisions. It was among the last of Nazi Germany’s forces to surrender in 1945. There have been annual demonstrations celebrating as well as condemning Waffen SS veterans in recent years.

The EU and Russia have added their weight to the debate, criticizing ceremonies commemorating Latvia’s Nazi past.


Nazi propaganda photograph of Salaspils concentration camp in 1941. (Image from Wikipedia)Nazi propaganda photograph of Salaspils concentration camp in 1941. (Image from Wikipedia)

[TsarSamuil]

Estonia: "Ruining relations with Russia is like suicide" - former MEP Chiesa.

RuptlyTV
Jan 23, 2015



Ruining relations with Russia would be "like suicide," Italian journalist and former European Parliament member Giulietto Chiesa said at a press conference in the Estonian town of Maardu on Friday. His remarks come following his return to Estonia for the first time since he was deported from the county on December 15.

[TsarSamuil]

rt.com/news/233119-neo-nazis-march-lithuania/

500 Lithuanian fascists march near WWII-era execution site of 10,000 Jews.

RT.com
February 17, 2015 17:45

About 500 Lithuanians, some sporting Nazi swastikas, attended a far right march in the country’s second city of Kaunas. The city was the scene of the Baltics worst World War II-era Jewish pogroms, where nearly 10,000 people were killed in one day.

Monday’s march was the eighth such event organized by the Lithuanian Nationalist Youth Union to coincide with one of Lithuania’s two independence days on February 16.

According to the Jerusalem Times, the marchers met up in a local park, where around 20 counter protesters from the local Jewish community and anti-fascist groups also turned up to follow them in a silent counter-demonstration.

Although overt Nazi-iconography was only used by a select few, other symbols, including the Columns of Gediminas, which leftists charge have become a symbol of the country’s neo-Nazis, were readily on display.

Many also carried flags depicting a variation of a triskeilon or triskele, a pagan symbol consisting of three interlocked spirals which has recently been appropriated by neo-Nazis, especially in Germany.

The marchers, some of them dressed up in variations of medieval garb, banged drums along the route while others let off green smoke flares.

“This march is particularly offensive because it is taking place where locals and Nazis murdered more than 10,000 Jews in one day,” Dovid Katz, a US-born Jewish scholar who moved to the capital Vilnius 16 years ago told the daily.

Katz, who edits a website called DefendingHistory.com, was referring to Kaunas massacre of October 29, 1941, where Nazi death squads, collaborating with Lithuanian partisans, killed 2,007 Jewish men, 2,920 women, and 4,273 children in a single day. It was the single worst massacre of Jews in the Baltics during the war.

A letter from the Kaunas Mayor’s Office to Katz, which gave the group a license for the event, says overt displays of Nazi symbols, leaders, or uniforms is illegal under Lithuania’s Law on Meetings. The office said that march organizers would face the appropriate criminal or administrative punishments if these or any other laws had been violated during the march.

February 16 is the anniversary of the declaration of Lithuanian independence in 1918, when the republic was first created after the First World War.

According to Katz, many in Lithuania and other Baltic states consider Hitler’s local collaborators “to be heroes” for resisting the Soviet occupation. This has led to a climate where he says “the state allows neo-Nazis to dominate both independence days.”

“This comparison [between the Nazi and Communist occupations] is not only false, it also serves to whitewash the stain in these countries’ histories instead of confronting it, as other European nations have done,” Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Jerusalem Times.

Approximately 220,000 Jews were living in Lithuania prior to the German invasion in June 1941. It is believed that 206,800 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators during the occupation.

[TsarSamuil]

‘Beyond diplomatic ethics’: Moscow rejects UK comment that Russia is threat to Baltics.

RT.com
February 19, 2015 11:33

Russian President Vladimir Putin may seek to destabilize the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has warned. Moscow labeled his statements "unacceptable."

Speaking to journalists from the Telegraph and the Times on a flight to Sierra Leone, Fallon admitted he was “worried about Putin,” saying the Russian president posed a “real and present danger.”

Fallon's words “are beyond diplomatic ethics,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a statement.

“His absolutely unacceptable characteristics of the Russian Federation remind me of last year's speech of US President Barack Obama before the UN General Assembly, in which he mentioned Russia among the three most serious challenges his country was facing. I believe we will find a way to react to Mr. Secretary's statements,” the Russian diplomat warned.

The British secretary's concerns come after Prime Minister David Cameron called upon European allies to threaten Russia with further economic sanctions, which could last for “years to come” if the Kremlin doesn’t stop intervening in Ukraine – allegations denied by Moscow.

Fallon told journalists he feared Putin would seek to destabilize Baltic NATO members. He said pressure could involve cyber-attacks, irregular troops and generating tensions with Russian minorities in the country.

“Those Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, they are using Russian rocket launchers, Russian tanks, Russian artillery, you can’t buy this equipment on eBay, it hasn’t come from somewhere else, it’s come from Russia and we know that,” he said.

“So we have to be very firm and strong about the sanctions and say to Vladimir Putin: ‘What you are doing is unacceptable and it will have economic and financial consequences for many years to come if you do not desist with your behavior.’”

“NATO has to be ready for any kind of aggression from Russia, whatever form it takes. NATO is getting ready,” he added.

The Defence Secretary’s comments are at odds with those voiced by the former MI6 Chief, who said on Monday that ramping up political and military pressure on Putin could lead to a change of Kremlin leadership which “may well be for the worse.”

Speaking to War Studies students at King’s College London, Sir John Sawers said action taken by Western governments over the crisis in Ukraine might provoke Putin, and lead to an even deeper crisis in the area.

Sawers, who recently retired from the post of Britain’s chief spymaster, said Putin wanted to use Russia’s nuclear capability as a projection of raw strength. He also said that while the country may be asserting itself, the West must “deal with the Russia we have. Not the Russia we’d like to have.”

“The Ukraine crisis is no longer just about Ukraine. It’s now a much bigger, more dangerous crisis, between Russia and Western countries, about values and order in Europe,” he said.

[TsarSamuil]

US armor paraded 300m from Russian border.

RT.com
February 25, 2015 08:38


U.S. soldiers attend military parade celebrating Estonia's Independence Day near border crossing with Russia in Narva February 24, 2015. (Reuters/Ints Kalnins)U.S. soldiers attend military parade celebrating Estonia's Independence Day near border crossing with Russia in Narva February 24, 2015. (Reuters/Ints Kalnins)

NATO member Estonia has held a military parade in border town of Narva, just 300 meters from the Russian border. Tallinn is a long-time critic of Moscow, which it accuses of having an aggressive policy towards the Baltic nation.

Tuesday’s military parade was dedicated to Estonia's Independence Day. Chief military commander Lt. Gen. Riho Terras headed the troops as President Toomas Hendrik Ilves reviewed them.



Over 140 pieces of NATO military hardware took part in the parade, including four US armored personnel carriers M1126 Stryker flying stars-and-stripes. Another foreign nation, the Netherlands, provided four Swedish-made Stridsfordon 90 tracked combat vehicles (designated CV9035NL Mk III by the Dutch).

Estonia also showed off its own howitzers, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, armored vehicles and other hardware. Over 1,400 troops also marched the streets of Narva.

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The parade is an obvious snub at Estonia's eastern neighbor Russia, whom it accuses of pushing aggressive policies in Eastern Europe. The Estonian government is among several vocally accusing Russia of waging a secret war against Ukraine by supplying arms and troops to anti-Kiev forces in the east.

Moscow denies the accusations, insisting that the post-coup government in Kiev alienated its own people in the east and started a civil war instead of resolving the differences through dialogue.

NATO seized the Ukrainian conflict as an opportunity to argue for a military build-up in Eastern Europe, supposedly to deter a Russian aggression. The three Baltic States are among the most vocal proponents of this policy.

Russia sees it as yet another proof that NATO is an anti-Russian military bloc that had been enlarging towards Russia's border and compromised its national security.

The Estonian government defended its right to hold whatever military maneuvers it wants in its territory.

“Narva is a part of NATO no less than New York or Istanbul, and NATO defends every square meter of its territory,” Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas said in a speech in capital, Tallinn.



Historically Narva was a point of centuries of confrontation between Russia and Sweden, when the two nations fought for dominance in the region. The city changed hands several times and ended up under Russian control in 1704, serving as a military outpost for decades.

The city was again contested in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the dissolution of the Russian Empire it triggered. Narva took turns between being governed by the self-proclaimed Estonian Republic, occupying German troops and the Red Army until eventually becoming Estonian again under a peace treaty between Estonia and Russia.

It then changed hands between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union along with the rest of the Baltics during World War II and went on to be part of an independent Estonia in 1991.

The city has a large number of ethnic Russians and a strong pro-autonomy movement, with some Estonian politicians fearing that it could be exploited now by Russia to saw dissent. Commenting on the issue in an interview with Washington Post, President Ilves said seeing Narva as a potentially separatist region “is stupid.”

[TsarSamuil]

rt.com/news/241153-riga-nazi-veterans-march/

Hundreds of Waffen-SS veterans march in Riga, antifascists ‘sanitize’ square after them

RT.com
March 16, 2015 17:40

Up to a thousand Nazi Waffen-SS veterans and their supporters have marched through Latvia’s capital, Riga, in their annual commemorating procession. In response, Latvian anti-fascists came out to “clean up” the route.

The march of the SS veterans started in Vecriga, in Riga’s old town, at 11:00 local time Monday after a religious service. The participants, holding the national flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, walked through the city to the Monument of Freedom, where they lay flowers. Many veterans wore uniforms of the legion and pre-war uniforms.

The use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was forbidden in the parade and the participants were not allowed to veil faces.

The annual march causes controversy among various social groups. Anti-fascist and Jewish organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believe such rallies glorify Nazism.

“These people fought for the victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in human history,” Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, told RT in Riga. “Among the people who served in Latvian SS Legion there were those who previously served in area commando, Latvian security police, actively involved in mass murder of Latvian Jews and Jews brought to Latvia to be murdered.”

Zuroff says the participants of the march are often associated with the fight for Latvia’s independence.

“Here they try to create the impression that these people helped bring about independent Latvia,” he said. “There is a direct line from fighting the military service to independent Latvia today. But nothing can be farther from the truth because Nazi Germany had absolutely no intention to give Latvia independence. That is only because the Nazi Germany lost the war that today there is independent democratic Latvia.”

Numerous policemen were present at the march and also a private security agency’s employees as the authorities expected confrontations with local anti-fascist organizations. Latvian Interior Minister Rihard Kozlovskis had earlier called on the residents to stay away from the city center unless absolutely necessary. The US Embassy in Latvia also recommended its citizens to pay more attention to security.

Anti-fascist activists staged a protest, wearing white overalls and pretending to “disinfect” the area from the “Nazi disease,” cleaning and washing the pavement near the Freedom Monument. Other participants displayed photos from concentration camps in Latvia.

Russia has condemned the holding of the Nazi veterans’ march as a violation of international law.

“This is a direct contradiction against the ruling of the Nuremberg Trials,” Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights ombudsman, told the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in Moscow.

The Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians and was split into two divisions. The legion was created in 1943 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In March of the same year, the legion was already battling the Soviet Red Army near the town of Pskov. It was among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.

The Waffen-SS march has been held annually on March 16 since 1998, although it is not an official holiday. Latvia’s national day of remembrance for war heroes is on November 11.

[TsarSamuil]

2 Lithuanian railway stations cordoned off after ‘train with Russian conscripts’ scare.

RT.com
March 19, 2015 21:25

Police and border guards briefly surrounded two railway stations in Lithuania’s Vilnius and Naujoji Vilnia after an alleged tip-off suggesting Russian troops were heading to the country by train, local media reported. The scare turned out to be false.

Law enforcement representatives were on high alert on Thursday after the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tipped-off security officials that there were “a lot of young men eligible for military service” heading from Russia’s Kaliningrad via Lithuania, a border official said, as cited by local media.

“That’s the reason why we heightened security. Our employees checked the train, however all passengers had valid documents, visas. We had no complaints, so we couldn’t deny entry to our territory,” a representative of the border guard, Rokas Pukinskas, told lrytas.lt

“According to our intelligence, maritime academy students [were in the train] heading [via Lithuania],” said Minister of National Defense, Juozas Olekas, as quoted by local media.

When asked why such drastic security measures were taken, the minister replied that it was a precaution “so that others do not attempt to go.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Lithuanian MPs overwhelmingly voted in favor of returning compulsory military service. Lithuania’s defense minister, who presented the bill before parliament, tied it to the current Ukrainian conflict, Baltic news portal Delfi reported. The measure will be effective for at least five years.

Lithuania scrapped conscription in 2008 several years after the country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, in February President Dalia Grybauskaite urged for its reinstation it due to “new geopolitical circumstances.”

Lithuania, is an ardent supporter and member of NATO, which has taken a stronger line over an alleged ‘Russian threat’ in the Baltic region. NATO has been conducting naval drills in the Black Sea concurrently with US military exercises in the Baltic states.

Wrapping up its NATO exercises in Poland, the US Army is planning to move its manpower and heavy vehicles through the Baltics March 21 through April 1, DefenseNews reported on Thursday.

“It's helped us further develop our understanding of freedom of movement in Eastern Europe,” said the US army’s senior commander in Europe, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges.

Russia is has simultaneously been holding massive drills of all its military branches across the country, from the Arctic through to the Baltic and Black Sea.

On Wednesday, the Russian Western Military District’s press service announced that more than 20 ships of Russia’s Baltic Fleet are out at sea conducting defense drills.

Moscow has refocused its major rearmament plan for the next 10 years span, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in January. In 2015 Moscow will place a particular focus on reinforcing its military in the Crimean peninsula, Kaliningrad Region, and in the Arctic, according Russia’s chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov.