Nikolay Mezhevich, a St. Petersburg professor who heads the Russian Association of Baltic Research, says that “for Russia the [three Baltic] countries should not exist” and that there are no prospects for an improvement in relations because the Baltic regimes can function only as anti-Russian actors.
In an interview with Rubaltic’s Aleksandr Nosovich following a conference at the Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad on relations between Russia and Poland, Mezhevich says that relations with Warsaw while bad now can improve but those with the Baltic countries never can.
The Baltics are thus “a dead zone, a Chernobyl.”
Russians and Poles, he continues, have “a common mentality: they are similar people with a common understanding of life. “But ‘with Lithuania, normalization is impossible,'” in any case, Mezhevich says, he does not expect to live to see it. That is because Vilnius like Riga and Tallinn can only exist by blaming Russia for all of their own shortcomings.
Asked by Nosovich what the “optimal” Russian policy toward the Baltic countries should be, the St. Petersburg professor is blunt: “There are no such countries. For Russia, there are no such countries. Legally, they exist, but we do not maintain any economic or political contacts with them.” The Baltics are thus “a dead zone, a Chernobyl.”
He nonetheless opposes breaking diplomatic relations with them. “Why given them that happiness?” Mezhevich asks rhetorically. “They are always dreaming about this. But the presence of diplomatic ties does not mean that me should develop any contacts with them because in these countries already nothing will change.”
Regardless of who wins elections in any of them, “the political regimes [of the three] are set in stone once and for all and will not change. Any Baltic politician who falls into the System will instantly be ‘worked over’” until he fits in with that reality. This is clear in Lithuania and Estonia, “and in Latvia it will be the same.”
From Window on Eurasia
Yes, we do not want to do anything with you. We have nothing in common. What do you expect after so many years of oppression? A typical propaganda article by a “professor” from Russia.
We’ll resist your way of life for generations.
It is not possible to improve any relations as long as people with attitude like this are having key positions in government institutions. Russia itself is blaming Western countries for their own problems and now they turned their logic blaming Baltic countries for rusophobia, when in fact, its nothing else than historical grievances.
He speaks jibberish saying nothing of value. The Grand Duchy of LT was in existence and encompassed a good deal of what is now Russian territory centuries before there was a country called Russia. The Baltic have no economic or political contact because we choose not to. For good reason, Russia is economically and politically a mess, their only gains in these areas are what they rape from other countries! Fix your own country first, leave the rest of us alone, we are more successful without you!
It’s the Russian government that has nothing in common with the Baltic States. These three countries existed long before Russia. The Soviet Union chose to dominate these countries by occupation. I know Lithuania will never forget. The expulsion of Russians from Lithuania is because they do not want to become citizens. Lithuania does not need Russia to exist.
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Mezhevich, your Putin has declared that the West is Russia’s enemy. We accept that, you are our enemy. If you want to improve relations the first step is yours.
Hannu Haili
Helsinki