The Baltic Front: Where Putin's Empire Meets the EU

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/concerns-grow-in-baltics-over-resurgent-russia-a-1041448.html



The Baltic states view themselves as being at the front lines in a new East-West conflict. But even with large Russian minority populations, its difficult to envision a Ukraine-style conflict taking shape in Lithania, Latvia or Estonia.

The Baltic Front: Where Putin's Empire Meets the EU
By Jan Puhl
July 03, 2015 – 09:22 PM

When Juozas Olekas was 10 years old, his parents took him on a long train trip from Vilnius to Moscow by way of St. Petersburg. They went as far east as Krasnoyarsk and then 70 kilometers (43 miles) further to Bolshoy Ungut, Siberia. The idea was for young Juozas to get to know the place of his birth.

Like thousands of other Lithuanians, Stalin deported the Olekas family in 1948 for what was supposed to be a decade." A beautiful land was governed by a murderous climate," recalls Olekas.

Today, he's the defense minister of Lithuania, which is now a member of the European Union. At 59, he's a portly man usually seen sporting a bow tie. His parents could never suppress their memories of the years in Siberia and the capriciousness of the Soviet regime. It's a history that also shapes his own identity.

"Russia is a real, distinct danger," he says. "It only understands the language of power. If we don't confront Moscow resolutely, it will get even more aggressive." Seven years ago, the Kremlin attacked Georgia without encountering any considerable resistance from the West. Now it's happening in Ukraine. Is it possible the Baltic states may one day face a similar assault?