Post by Odin of Ossetia on Sept 1, 2004 13:54:18 GMT -5
BALTICS' CLAIMS TO RUSSIA UNSUBSTANTIATED
MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) -- Nezavisimaya Gazeta has published an article by Aman Tuleyev, governor of the Kemerovo region (the south of central Russia). In his opinion, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania "are obviously chronically ill": they regularly claim billions of dollars from Russia and urge it to beg forgiveness for "the fifty years of occupation."
But the Helsinki agreement laid down the inviolability of all post-war borders, and therefore, the integrity of all the countries, including the USSR, which comprised Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, the Russian governor says. All the Western countries, without exception, signed this agreement, and it has not been invalidated.
Restoration of historical justice is a reciprocal process, Mr Tuleyev writes. On the whole, Lithuania received 30% of its current territory from the "occupant", the USSR.
Nazi Germany was a classical occupant, for example, as it took what it looted out of the country. The governor specifies that in Soviet times, living standards in the Baltic republics were higher than in the rest of the country.
Mr Tuleyev is exasperated by the numerous human rights violations, above all in relation to Russian citizens, the persecution of WWII veterans of partisan movements and law enforcers, the indulgence of fascism to the point of erecting monuments to SS officers, and claims to Russia.
www.rian.ru
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The article makes some good points.
Makes one think on when will the Baltic states demand reparations from Germany for WWI, WWII, and the Western crusaders' conquests and rule, when the populations of the Baltic states were really treated like a bunch of slaves and serfs, and when their lands were really taken away from them to be exploited by foreigners.
Lithuania's blatant ingratitude is quite obvious, as well as Western cynicism; when will the former colonial powers pay reparations to their former colonies in places like Africa and Asia? And what about paying for slavery?!