Abstract
This chapter focuses on the strained and complex relationship between the Baltic states and Russia, not least in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea and the wider conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Much of the analysis centres on Latvia in particular—since the country was singled out for a special ‘post-Crimea’ survey. The spotlight is on public support for the main geopolitical actors along the main faultline in Europe: Russia versus the European Union. How do ordinary people feel about Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin and after the annexation of Crimea? Do they support the current membership of the European Union and the very idea of European integration? The majority and minority populations may agree on many things, but on fundamental issues such as geopolitical orientation, they are at odds.
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Notes
- 1.
According to a press release by the Russian Information Agency (Novosti) from 31 December 2003, Igor Studennikov, at the time Russia’s ambassador to Latvia, told journalists that ‘we are not demanding anything that would go beyond the European standards, we only want that the Russian-speaking population of Latvia would have the same rights as, for example, the Hungarians in Slovakia and the Albanians in Macedonia, or as the ethnic Germans in Southern Tyrol’.
- 2.
‘Fury in Baltics over Yeltsin troops decree’ (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/fury-in-baltics-over-yeltsin-troops-decree-1560583.html, accessed on 1 October 2009).
- 3.
‘Latvia disagrees with history as seen by Russia’s Foreign Ministry’ (http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936600.html, accessed on 1 October 2009).
- 4.
Lithuania, on the other hand, had actually gained quite a bit of territory as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, notably Vilnius.
- 5.
In terms of trust in other institutions, there was a smaller, but nevertheless clear trend towards greater trust, and also greater discrepancies between the majority and minority parts of the population.
- 6.
‘Latvian anti-government protest turns into riot’ (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-latvia-protest/latvian-anti-government-protest-turns-into-riot-idUSTRE50C7IF20090113, accessed on 1 March 2019).
- 7.
Just days before 1 May 2004, EU–Russian negotiations were still going on. According to the EU Commission spokesperson in 2004, Diego de Ojeda, the position of the EU was that both Estonia and Latvia fulfilled the ‘entry criteria’ on democracy and human rights. De Ojeda also underlined the need for speeding up the integration of the Russian-speaking non-citizens into the societies of Latvia and Estonia, but at the same time also admitted that citizenship legislation is primarily a national issue (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 22 April 2004).
- 8.
Of those who used Latvian as the language of interview in 2015, 95.3 said they were Latvian citizens; of those who used Russian as the language of interview, 58.6 said they were Latvian citizens (Post-Crimea Barometer 2015).
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Duvold, K., Berglund, S., Ekman, J. (2020). Living Next to Russia. In: Political Culture in the Baltic States. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21844-7_5
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