Russophobia in the Baltic states
OWN CORRESPONDENT
The Baltic policy of terror against its own population is getting increasingly horrific.
The Russian-language schools are being canceled in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, so that contrary to international conventions, the language rights of Russian-speaking citizens are being violated.
Those, who somehow try to protect the people, are considered as traitors. Russophobic persecution of children in schools and even in kindergartens, targeting of journalists, substitution of historical facts have become the norm, while the political leadership of the Baltic countries does not hide neo-fascist sympathies, supporting annual marches of SS legionnaires and the demolishing Soviet monuments.
But why do the Baltic want to erase the memory of the immeasurable contribution of brave Soviet soldiers to the victory over fascism?
The fact is that some representatives of the Baltic elites are children and grandchildren of collaborators who once supported the Nazi regime.
Thus, the father of the Foreign Affairs Adviser to the President of Latvia, Janis Kazocins, was an officer in the Latvian SS – Legion. In one of his interviews, Janis admitted that had grown up in the environment of retired Latvian SS officers in exile. Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins is also a descendant of political emigrants who fled to Sweden in 1944. The Latvian prime minister’s mother, being a child, was sent into exile in Siberia, along with her grandparents, who collaborated with the nationalist military organization “Omakaitse” facilitating the Nazi Germany.
So, by destroying Soviet monuments and criminalizing Russian-speaking society, the Baltic political elites are clearly taking revenge for their defeated Nazi ancestors.
It is worth noting that Latvia is the most radical state among all the Baltic countries in relation to the population with Russian roots. Latvia set a course for de-Russification immediately after gaining its independence. In the 1990s, all residents of the country were divided into two large categories – citizens and non-citizens. The latter category included those who had moved to the country after 1940 and their descendants.
The main feature of non-citizens in Latvia is the so-called purple passport. Its holder does not have the right to vote, serve in the army and law enforcement agencies, in the civil service, to work in the fields of law, medicine and many others. Such people are often viewed as “unreliable.” Despite the legally guaranteed opportunity to obtain the status of citizens, just few of them go through the naturalization procedure successfully.
A similar division of people into “worthy” and “unworthy” has already taken place in world history, for example, in the Nazi laws “On the Citizen of the Reich” and “On the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,” of 1935 and a number of subsequent acts it was stated that Jews could not be citizens of Reich. They had no vote on political matters; it was prohibited to hold public office.
Taking into account all the facts above, one may involuntarily form the opinion that the Baltic countries are striving to create national monostates through terror and discrimination against their own citizens, which is a precedent having similarities with genocide.