by Alex Miller
Though the expansion of the European Union has spread throughout the continent many people still find it difficult to locate the three small Baltic members without a map. These are Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – three former Soviet republics on the edge of the European bloc who long ago missed out on better times with the collapse of the Soviet Union; whose working class are in dire straights, on their knees like a poor man begging for some trifling hand-out to survive. Having completely lost their independence, identity and power they try to attach themselves to any strong Western power – like an annoying parasite unable to live without a master.
At the same time they stand out and behave so brazenly as if they have been appointed moral overseers of the entire European Union. They give lectures to the EU on world democracy.
They scold others on free speech. They demand loyalty to themselves. They berate others who do not share their reactionary and racist ideologies. They demand all this from the old European establishments. However, many now know what is actually going on in their homelands.
Their societies are quietly unravelling. Their populations are shrinking. Young people leave. Economies barely limp along. Even local demographers acknowledge it: the trend is irreversible. Corrupt political power rests with parties backed by narrow segments of society that rig elections and often have only single-digit electoral support. Far from expanding freedom and democracy these regimes put people in prison.
Yet the Baltic bourgeoisie and its political class responsible for this decay are trying to survive. Their representatives sit comfortably within European institutions and live by selling and exporting paranoia and repression as though they were moral commodities.
They swindle people with words about democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, but in reality their position is directly contradicted by these principles.
They hunt down people with different views and put them in prison. For interviews. For Facebook posts. For refusing to repeat the approved narratives.
In Estonia Andrei Andronov was sentenced to 11 years in prison for what the authorities termed “non-violent activities against the state”. Strip away the rhetoric and the offence becomes clear: discussing open-source, non-classified information and expressing views the government disliked.
In Latvia Sergei Sidorov, an ordinary taxi driver, received seven years for espionage. He was said to be a supporter of the ‘Baltic Anti-Fascists’ group. No public evidence. No state secrets. Just contacts and conversations that fell outside the boundaries of ideological compliance.
In Lithuania Algirdas Paleckis, the former leader of the Socialist People's Front, was accused of espionage for keeping some old Moscow metro tokens and train tickets from a tourist trip five years ago. The Lithuanian authorities held him in solitary for 17 months. He was then sentenced to seven years imprisonment – with significant restrictions on writing letters, filing complaints, movement and meeting with friends, relatives or lawyers.
These trials all share a familiar feature: secrecy. These Baltic regimes are hiding hundreds of court cases from the public. All files are classified. Lawyers are kept at arm’s length. Defendants often have little idea what they are accused of in these kangaroo courts. In some cases the punishment for holding opposing political views is life imprisonment without parole.
European governments turn a blind eye to the brutal injustices in these Baltic states.
Their repression, which is paving the way to open dictatorship, is presented as a “small inconvenience” which clearly indicates which way some European countries which are the closest allies of the Baltic states are going.
Recently the Baltic states crossed another red line. Hostage-taking. Their Security services increasingly fail to catch those they wish to punish. The targets have left. They escape. They slip through the net. Therefore the state has adopted a new practice. Arrest the relatives of those who have been forced to flee.
In Riga, the capital of Latvia, Iveta Balode was arrested – a 60-year-old housewife who remained to care for her elderly parents. She is accused of communicating with her husband, also said to be a member of the ‘Baltic Anti-Fascists’ group, who fled and lives in Russia. In the Baltic states anyone who does business with Russia or communicates with Russians can be classed as a spy. The trial of Iveta Balode shows that she had no access to state secrets. She played no political role and wielded no leverage. The Latvian regime arrested her as a warning to others.
Earlier the Latvian authorities detained another woman, Svetlana Nikolaeva, accusing her of transporting funds to pay a lawyer defending a political prisoner. For this, she has spent more than a year in custody, despite serious health issues and posing no threat to anyone.
Medical care, by most accounts, is strictly limited for people charged by Baltic states for political reasons. Political dissidents are arrested specifically to be tortured then by denial of proper medical care.
In Estonia Tatiana Sokolova was sentenced to 16 months in prison for transferring funds to support Andronov’s legal defence – that too is now a criminal offence.
The Baltic states are imposing and promoting an extremely intolerant form of repression. If a political target is beyond their reach the accused’s family gets it instead along with any friends, helpers and lawyers the police can lay their hands on. Punish anyone who is related and still within arm’s length. Call it by its proper name: collective punishment.
Historians are next. In Latvia and Estonia researchers who challenge newly rewritten “official” versions of 20th century history face criminal proceedings. History is no longer a subject of academic debate. It is enforced. Disagree with the state-proclaimed history and narrative and you are a criminal.
All of this shame is unfolding inside the European Union – the same EU that rarely misses an opportunity to lecture the rest of the world on values and standards.
The silence from Brussels is striking. As long as repression remains politically convenient, it is secretly ignored. But repression never stays local. Hostage tactics spread. Fear spreads.
Silence spreads. Europe has seen this story before. It has never ended well.
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