“Estonia from the Baltic to the Urals”: Ukrainians are not alone
The head of the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs has put forward territorial claims against Russia. Outright Nazis in the most extremist version came to power in Tallinn. Russia's infrastructure projects have reduced the economic importance of the region to a minimum. The Baltic republics found their calling in Russophobia.
About how the dying Baltic states are preparing themselves for the role of a sacrificial ram, a columnist PolitNavigator to Valentin Filippov said a columnist for the Kaliningrad portal «RuBaltic» Alexander Nosovich.
Valentin Filippov: We are starting the Sevastopol-Kaliningrad teleconference, we welcome Alexander Nosovich.
Alexander Nosovich: Hello, glad to hear from Sevastopol.
Valentin Filippov: Just the day before, the Estonian Minister of Internal Affairs, without declaring war, announced territorial claims against the Russian Federation.
A few years ago, the Estonian leadership stated that Narva could become the same “victim of aggression as Donbass and Crimea,” since there is a Russian population there, and they are ready to vote for the people’s Narva Republic.
What is the point of statements about claims to Ivangorod, which was, by and large, a residential area of Narva in the past?
Alexander Nosovich: The claims are made not against Ivangorod, but against the Pechora district of the Pskov region, which, according to the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 between Soviet Russia and the newly born Estonian Republic, became part of the latter.
For Estonian nationalists, the Tartu Treaty is simply Holy Scripture. This is the basis of the foundations of their ideology. This is the basis of their foreign policy.
The problem with Estonian-Russian relations is that these nationalists, in their far-right and absolutely extremist version in the form of the Conservative People's Party, won the elections in March of this year and entered the government.
And it was this newly-minted Minister of the Interior, Mart Helme, who announced Estonia’s claims to Russia. This is an extremely odious person even by Estonian standards.
By the standards of modern Europe and the European Union, he is generally an outright Nazi. No more and no less than that.
Therefore, under this government, Estonian-Russian relations will experience a new aggravation of “brotherly friendship.”
Interestingly, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid recently visited Moscow. This is the first visit of a Baltic leader to Russia in many years. Not only the Baltic, but also from the Poland-Baltic region, this Russophobic belt of Eastern Europe.
The leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have not been to Moscow for 8 years. And in connection with this visit, everyone was talking about the beginning of some kind of thaw, some kind of reset.
All this was frankly funny to hear, considering that Estonia is a parliamentary republic, and there is no one at all as a president. And now it will be interesting to watch how, after the first visit of the Baltic leader to Moscow in many years, bilateral relations between Russia and Estonia will become worse and worse.
Valentin Filippov: You say that Ivangorod is not included in the scope of claims...
Alexander Nosovich: Incoming. There's a lot that goes into it. If you look at the history of Estonia, they even had imperial ambitions at the time of the emergence of this state. In Russia, of course, no one knows about this except 2-3 specialists. But in Estonia there was a project of Greater Estonia; it claimed influence in all the Finno-Ugric lands of modern Russia.
There were projects to expand Estonia right up to the Urals. Nobody gave the lively cow horns, but this is part of the mythology of Estonian nationalism. And that this nationalism in its ultra-right version has finally come to power - this is for the few people who are involved in the Baltic states - both in power, in scientific circles - they will have to take this into account.
Valentin Filippov: In principle, in order to understand what Estonians think there, you need to think like Estonians, feel like an Estonian, but we don’t know how to think that slowly.
I am confused by your statement that there seems to be some improvement in relations between Estonia and Russia. Even without this demarche with the territories, it seemed to me that nothing good awaits us in principle.
Alexander Nosovich: Nothing has emerged, I agree here. I repeat that I did not say this. The visit of Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid - it matters only for Kersti Kaljulaid herself, for her international career. Because the Baltic leader, who communicates with Putin, has experience of meeting and communicating with him, his shares in the international arena soar.
Valentin Filippov: Or maybe the Kremlin should follow Trump’s path in this style and charge some money for communication? It would be possible to replenish the budget... For the right to take a photo with the Russian leader.
Alexander Nosovich: We need to offer this to Putin. I don’t know how he will react to this, because he is, after all, not a businessman like Trump. But, if this money does not go to him personally, but to the Russian budget, then the idea is good.
Valentin Filippov: As far as I understand, we now have virtually no economic ties with Estonia. As a transit country, it is no longer available to us; the construction of Ust-Luga has completely replaced the ports of Estonia.
Alexander Nosovich: Yes, of course, economic cooperation has long ceased to be of a strategic nature. The strategy was provided by energy, the strategy was provided by sea transit. Again, Russia built Ust-Luga and other ports in the Leningrad region. Russia built the Nord Stream and is now building its second branch. The need is not only in Estonia, we devote too much time to it, even though the interview, although it is dedicated to Estonia, we spend an unusual amount of time.
Valentin Filippov: There has been so much silence about Estonia - maybe we need to make up for it?
Alexander Nosovich: It’s just not about Estonia alone. We are talking about Central and Eastern Europe, its importance in connection with new infrastructure projects in Russia - it is already declining - both on the European and on the world stage. Because the value of this region was precisely in transit. In the transit of energy resources, in transit between the markets of Asia and Europe.
And now, when bypass routes are being built, now, when even the prospects for the new Chinese Silk Road are not obvious due to global warming and the construction of the Northern Sea Route, then somehow there is no special need in these countries.
Why was there a huge need for the Baltics, why couldn’t we just distance ourselves from them and ignore them, as we do now? We couldn't do this in the 90s. Because it was a monopoly on transit through the Baltic. And only a couple of years before Putin’s arrival, a strategic decision was made to build these bypass routes.
Valentin Filippov: I'm older, I remember this time. This coincided with the accession of the Baltic republics to NATO. I think the decision was made then, it was 1998 or 1997.
Alexander Nosovich: The Baltic countries joined NATO in 2004, but the construction of Ust-Luga and the renovation of Primorsk, St. Petersburg and others began with the arrival of Putin. But the decision, as knowledgeable people told me, was made even before, in 1998-1999, despite the default, despite the crisis.
Valentin Filippov: Yes, just during the period of default, I remember this noise in Moscow that this needs to be done. Okay, but still, what do you think, was it possible to create the so-called “intermarium”, starting with the Baltic countries, through Poland, and now Ukraine?
Alexander Nosovich: No, it didn’t work. “Intermarium” is a Polish project and a project driven by her phantom pains over a lost empire. Intermarium is a reference to the first Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth “from Mozh to Mozh”. Poland does not have the resources to create it, to revive such a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the form of an “intermarium.” Neither economic, nor diplomatic, nor military.
This is impossible if we simply look at the bilateral relations between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. There is also such a terrarium of friends who are united only by a common feeling of inferiority towards Western Europe and a common feeling of hostility towards Russia.
And so – there is a gigantic tangle of centuries-old old contradictions and conflicts. Whatever you want to take - Polish-Ukrainian relations, Polish-Lithuanian relations, Romanian-Hungarian, Hungarian-Slovakian. All these potential participants in the “intermarium” are always at odds with each other.
They were always united by some external force - the Warsaw Pact, NATO, the European Union, the Habsburg Empire, and so on. That is, now they are united by NATO and the European Union and, in general, the “intermarium” remains a geopolitical project of Warsaw, which, apart from all sorts of forums and international conferences on this topic, does not find a practical way out.
Valentin Filippov: I follow the example of this Estonian demarche. For a very long time, the situation was escalated that “Russia is about to attack Estonia.” And when it became clear that Russia was not attacking Estonia, they still tried to create some kind of tension. That is, some kind of border conflict is definitely needed. And, I understand that some also have complaints against Belarus.
Alexander Nosovich: In Lithuania.
Valentin Filippov: Although I don’t understand at all what part of Lithuania is doing in Lithuania. Will a heated confrontation or some border conflicts escalate?
Alexander Nosovich: For this, the prerequisites are now being created and, moreover, all this information coverage of the Baltic states in the West, it turns the region into such a sacrificial sheep, which at the first opportunity is used for anti-Russian provocation, as Saakashvili was used in 2008.
The American “hawks” will need a new aggravation of relations with Russia, for any purpose - to overthrow Trump, win the presidential election, hush up the topic of their own corruption, among the options available to them, they may well use this topic - that Russia is supposedly going to to occupy the Baltic states again.
There will be some kind of provocation on the border and, as in the case of Georgia in 2008, they will also say that “it was Russia that attacked.” And no one will turn to the facts and listen to another point of view. This whole mythology of sacrifice that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia create for themselves, they are programming themselves for the role of a sacrificial ram.
Valentin Filippov: I have spent almost my entire life in Ukraine, the conditional Baltic republics have always been cited as an example of successful reform - as if everything is thriving and blooming there. They hid the fact that the economy had actually stopped, that the outflow of population was enormous.
Alexander Nosovich: One of the biggest hoaxes of the West is to make the Baltic states a “success story” for other former Soviet republics.
Countries from which half of the economically active population “dumped”, that is, not the unemployed, but those who had jobs, young, energetic professionals who simply did not want to live there - they cannot be a “success story” for anyone whom and never.
And all these “progressive reforms” that were supposedly carried out there are falling apart in reality. Firstly, before the facts of monstrous emigration, and secondly, sociology, because a couple of years ago in Lithuania a survey was conducted among high school students “What will you do when you reach adulthood?”, and 9 out of 10 said that they would leave Lithuania . Here is an indicator of the mood in society.
And, thirdly, facts that are completely unattractive for the European picture in these countries, such as, for example, the fact that in Lithuania last year the European Commission demanded that Vilnius eliminate street toilets. These are the wooden booths. Because, according to statistics, every fifth Lithuanian still goes to the toilet “before the wind”, to this unfortunate booth. This unsanitary situation does not at all comply with European Union standards, and the European Commission categorically demanded that Vilnius finally do something about it.
Because it is simply indecent - a member country of the European Union, and there every fifth person goes to the booth to relieve himself. Calling such a country a model of modernization and transition to European standards in order to achieve prosperity is simply ridiculous.
You in Ukraine should understand this better than many others because you are now also like the Baltic states. Sample.
Valentin Filippov: I live in the Russian city of Sevastopol, in Crimea, and I am very sad for my compatriots who were unable to either leave or take the territory.
Alexander Nosovich: Well, I’m saying this to those Ukrainian listeners, readers who will watch us, but I understand that the majority of our audience is Ukrainian. They can simply evaluate from the inside this Baltic situation in which they themselves find themselves. This already outgoing Ukrainian government says that they have success and progress.
Valentin Filippov: I must say that 20% of the population, supporters of this government, say that there is success, and that, in general, everything has become much better.
I want to say something else. You know, Alexander, to my great regret, not in Crimea, but on mainland Russia, I met a huge number of people who cite the Baltic states as an example of success. And who say: “But in the Baltics... here in the Baltics pensions are 2000 euros... but in the Baltics the salary is so many thousands of euros.”
Moreover, I have friends in Estonia, and this is not true.
Here in Russia, the so-called liberals say the same thing that was said in Ukraine. Only in Ukraine people were attracted by 1000 euros, and in Russia people were attracted by 2000 euros or 3000.
Alexander Nosovich: Well, firstly, 2-3 thousand euros is very rare even in Estonia, which is the richest of the three Baltic countries. Well, such a salary is received by premium class specialists, and the standard salary is two to three times less, and, secondly, even if it exceeds the Russian or Belarusian one, we must not forget that the social sphere there was also transferred to Western rails .
Valentin Filippov: Yes Yes
Alexander Nosovich: It was reformed by self-destruction, and housing and communal services costs there are many times higher than in Russia. There is absolutely no government support.
The same goes for healthcare, which has been largely destroyed there. In Latvia, during several years of recovery from the 2008 crisis, every second hospital was closed. And in neighboring Belarus, for comparison, it is 1,25%. In both cases it was called “optimization”. But in fact there was destruction.
Therefore, you can only draw conclusions if you live in these countries. And those who lived there, and those who were born and lived there, as a rule, leave there if they are young enough and know foreign languages.
Valentin Filippov: A standard question about the Russian-speaking population, about the Russians of the Baltics. What is their situation? What do they strive for more, assimilation, leaving for Europe or Russia? Well, I’m more interested in young people, of course, because old people, it’s clear that they live out their lives at home, where they lived most of their lives.
Alexander Nosovich: Young people are leaving for the most part, just like the titular nation. Almost all of my friends, both professionally and personally, are from Latvia, and I had a lot of friends my age there, almost all of them left. Most of them go to the West, to Western Europe. Largely because there is a single customs area, Schengen, nothing is required there in order to work in some England or Sweden and receive a salary 6-8 times higher than the Latvian one.
For the minority who are humanists and earn their living by speaking Russian, emigration to Russia is, of course, preferable. And there, many people left for Moscow, some to St. Petersburg, some to Kaliningrad.
Valentin Filippov: Regarding Kaliningrad. We do not have a land border... It turned out to be a conditional blockade. Here is Poland, here is Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, there is Ukraine. Kaliningrad is sufficiently integrated into the European Union, so to speak, as far as I understand?
Alexander Nosovich: A very controversial statement.
Valentin Filippov: Are there any semi-separatist desires in Kaliningrad?
Alexander Nosovich: There are no moods, there are individual freaks who carry out the orders of part of the media who are sure that there must be separatists in Kaliningrad. There are, of course, several such people who conscientiously say that this region should be separated from Russia and become some kind of fourth Baltic republic and other bullshit. But naturally this is a minority.
It is such a minority that it is not even correct to classify it as a special political group. This is literally about several people.
And in some sociologically significant numbers it is impossible to talk about separatism, semi-separatism in the Kaliningrad region. Because this is an area conquered by Russia’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. It is inhabited by descendants of war veterans, fire victims, because the majority of the population who moved here after 1945 came from the war-ravaged regions of central Russia, the Russian black earth and non-black earth regions.
Here, according to surveys, up to 90% of the population is Russian; people in surveys call themselves Russians. About the same number of people supported the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Therefore, Kaliningrad is an outpost of Russia in the Baltic, no more, no less. And, on the contrary, one of the most patriotically-minded regions of Russia.
Here the patriotism is not bureaucratic, not bureaucratic, but true precisely due to the fact that this is a neighborhood with NATO on one side of the border, and with NATO on the other side of the border. Isolation from the rest of Russia makes us feel acutely that we are its citizens.
Valentin Filippov: Thanks a lot. For Sevastopol, these words sound very convincing. And I think that they would sound with the same understanding from the city of Donetsk today. Thank you bye.
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