George Bush's visit to Europe this week has been grabbing headlines left, right and center, depending on one's choice of reading material and political leanings. The new-look president is making it his goal to soothe Old Europe while avoiding irritating Russia outright. It is being called fence mending by some; curious how they do not take into account that it takes two to tango. Bush has been on a whirlwind European adventure - from meetings with NATO and European Union leaders to Slovakia, where this Thursday's Bratislava summit with Russian President Putin may have far-reaching implications.
Balts and their expatriate lobby organizations are very well aware that Russia is hardly delivering on democratic promises. Thus Baltic leaders have taken it upon themselves to express their concerns about the directions that Russia under Putin is taking.
Bush is listening, and has assured Balts that he intends to relay these concerns to Putin in Bratislava. At a news conference after a meeting with EU leaders Bush was characteristically blunt. A day after calling for Russia to renew its commitment to democracy, Bush said "I like a country with an independent free press", making reference to cases, where members of the Russian press were denied license and access by the Kremlin to western press conferences.
After meeting with NATO leaders Bush was even more direct. Without identifying anyone, Bush was quoted widely as saying that there were other voices from "around the table" expressing worries. "There were some concerns from the Baltic nations," Bush said, "and I look forward to carrying their message that it's very important for President Putin to make very clear why he's made some of the decisions he's made - as well as respect for his neighbours."
One Baltic voice was that of Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, who met with Bush on Tuesday. According to The Baltic Times, Vike-Freiberga went on Latvian national television that same evening stating that the Baltics could count on U.S. support against Russian criticism. She told her nation that President Bush stressed "several times" that "we do not have to worry because as a NATO member state Latvia can fully count on U.S support and the personal support of President Bush - without reservations, always and everywhere." Further, Bush will always be "Latvia's friend and won't break his promise to back [us] up." Vike-Freiberga also emphasized that Bush was well aware of the EU's worries about the situation in Russia. The concerns raised are "a serious signal that the EU sent to Bush, in particular with view of the planned meeting [in Bratislava]."
While much has been made of Bush's personal "friendship" with Putin, one wonders how the American President intends to raise these concerns in a “cordial” way. For Russia has been very loud and insistent about alleged human rights violation issues in Latvia, and those are the types of allegations that put patellae in the liberal west into spasmodic twitch mode.
The propaganda event in Moscow this May 9, Russia's "Victory Day" celebrations, through which Putin is attempting to hornswoggle the West into accepting the Red view of selective history is a major issue in the Baltics, not least in Latvia.
Vika-Freiberga’s announcement that she would attend so as to turn the tables on Putin has not been seen well by many. Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus would not attend as a private citizen; yet he has not committed one way or the other as Head of State. The same applies to Estonian President Arnold Rüütel. How long will these gentlemen straddle that fence which Bush allegedly is attempting to mend? When Lithuanians abroad celebrated their Independence Day last week, and Estonians did so this week, our lobby groups were firm in insisting that Baltic leaders have the spine and intestinal fortitude when dealing with Russia in this matter, exhorting them to put our country, as always, first.
Vike-Freiberga's critics are growing. Last week the Latvian human rights group Helsinki-86 garnered media attention by condemning her decision to attend the May 9th events in Moscow. An article in the Latvian newspaper Kauno Diena expresses Helsinki-86's view that Vike-Freiberga’s stand is detrimental to promoting unity in the Baltic nations. The organization believes that there is no sense in asking for a formal apology from Russia for the occupation of Latvia, because, thanks to Yalta, the USA and Great Britain share the responsibility of crimes against Latvia. At Yalta the superpowers remorselessly traded Eastern Europe to the bloody Stalin regime, being well aware of what horrors awaited the people of once free independent democratic nations. They claim that Vike-Freiberga has no mandate to solve "ethnic integration matters within a narrow circle" - only the Latvian nation has the right to decide such important questions. International institutions should be called upon to provide Latvia with funds for repatriation of Soviet-era colonists. European superpowers should also be demanded to legally solve the consequences of the criminal deals resulting from Yalta.
Helsinki-86 is calling for a citizen's referendum on these issues. The ratification of the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities is another thorny issue that concerns the human rights group.
As Vladimir Socor wrote in the Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Monitor February 10, attending or not attending May 9 events is not really the question. Russia will clearly not acknowledge the facts of occupation and annexation in any bilateral declaration. Entanglement into further negotiations will bring no results save bargaining over formulations, risking the dilution of the Baltic States' clear moral position. That is at present ironclad, and, as such, writes Socor, a clear "pillar of their security." Further, "interstate declarations of the type Russia wants are anachronistic - unnecessary at best, and possibly risky." The Baltic States need to "work out among themselves a common message to the world, irrespective of their ultimate decision on whether to attend the Moscow summit or not."
As of press time no word from Bratislava as to how Bush intends to deal with these concerns. Condemnation is an easy tactic - legal action must take precedence. And that has been the call from abroad ever since the Soviets illegally occupied our homelands.
Much more than concern
Archived Articles | 25 Feb 2005 | EWR
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