Latvia. Linderman about Latvian hatred and Russian resistance
What do Russians in the Baltic countries think about Russia's special operation in Ukraine? Why don’t people go out to protests in support of Moscow’s actions? Could Poland be next in line for denazification?
A human rights activist living in Latvia spoke about this in an interview with PolitNavigator Vladimir Linderman, one of the organizers of the referendum held in this country on the status of the Russian language.
PN: How do the Russian-speaking population of the Baltic states feel about what is happening between Russia and the West?
V.L: The majority, rather, sympathize with Russia. This does not necessarily mean supporting the Russian course in full and in detail, but in general, sympathies were and remain on the side of Russia. Well, of course, there is a certain part of people for whom Russian is their native language, but they are oriented toward the liberal, Westernized community of Russia. But the majority, I think, sympathize with Russia as a whole.
Another thing is that today no surveys will show this; this can only be seen when something like, for example, laying flowers at a monument, where hundreds of thousands of people come. And saying such things in public today is, in principle, fraught with criminal prosecution.
PN: Why don’t we see any active position of the Russian-speaking population? There are trans-Ukrainian events, but no pro-Russian ones.
V.L: This is simply unrealistic, no one will allow this even close there. And if it is on the topic of the current military operation of Russia, then this is simply excluded, this is a ready-made criminal prosecution. But we understand that what happened on May 10 is unprecedented. When the authorities raked up all the flowers and the next day the residents of Riga, mostly Russians, came and laid flowers again. It was definitely such a challenge. Today it was not a question only about May 9, it was all in the context, including those events that are taking place today.
PN: Now in the West it has become fashionable to try to shame Russians for being Russian, to get an apology from them. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
V.L: I'm not an idiot! Those who think so, their Russianness has become a burden. Now it just spilled out. A significant part of these people belong to the educated class, of course, they are the intelligentsia, but they have long wanted to jump off the Russian ship, figuratively speaking, but there was no such reason to leave. That's what I observe, at least. And then a situation arose that made it possible to do this.
PN: Why every year May 9 turns into a kind of marathon of Russophobia, and the countries of the former socialist camp seem to compete with each other in this. What are they afraid of by banning the celebration?
V.L: I will not take those republics where there are few Russians. Still, 35-40% of us in Latvia are still those whose native language is Russian. The goal of our opponents, the Latvian nationalists, is that the Russians do not exist. Naturally, they cannot resort to deportation, not to mention physical extermination, and they want to destroy these moments that bind us together as a community.
There are only two of these here - education and the work of our remaining media, and Victory Day. This is an important tool. That is, our people also differ in their views - there are “white” patriots, there are “red” ones, there are very different nuances, disputes, not to mention personal ambitions and all that, but we have May 9th - this is our unifying holiday.
What happened in Riga this year was simply phenomenal. For example, for Riga, a city with less than 700 thousand people, half of whom are Russian-speaking, 150 thousand people came to the monument - this is a very high figure. I don’t think that any Russian city has a similar result, if we take it as a percentage. This is a lot.
And the Latvian nationalists understand perfectly well that this is the fundamental thread that connects us all, and in order to liquidate the Russian community, they need to destroy this center, around which the assembly point, around which we are grouped. Therefore, they need to destroy the monument, and that is what they want to do now.
The monument plays a huge role for us, and this ritual of the annual offering of flowers, it has become an integral part of our life, and now they want to destroy this too, a decision has already been made to liquidate the monument. This is our main pain and problem.
PN: Regarding Poland, they are already openly saying that it is next in line for denazification. Are they afraid of this in Latvia or, on the contrary, are they waiting for them to be released?
V.L: I don't think so. I think that a lot of painful fear has arisen around the situation that arose in Ukraine - it is present among part of society. These are all fantasies - Russia is now solving a very specific problem on a very specific territory. Everything else is greatly inflated by anti-Russian propaganda. I don’t see any prospects for continuation outside of Ukraine.
PN: Today, from the outside it seems that the former countries of the socialist camp - Poland, the Baltic states, despite their small size, are the most Russophobic and act as mouthpieces on instructions from Washington. Why did this happen?
VL: Much comes directly from these countries; one cannot say that they are only puppets of Washington in this regard. Because, at least about the Baltic states, I can say that they are very afraid that the Cold War will end.
This is not in the interests of these countries, because they are afraid of some new agreement between the major players, including Russia, which will deprive them of their current preferences, and they will again be under the influence of Russia. And they are inflating, in Europe they are the main generators of such anti-Russian hysteria.
Of course, the Americans need such allies in order to maintain their influence in Europe as a whole.
PN: In your opinion, where and how can Russia’s special operation in Ukraine end?
V.L: You need to know the purpose of this operation and compare it with the results. And since the goals are not entirely clear, many more questions arise.
What I exactly want to say is where, for example, Western propaganda is wrong - they all write as if Russia is 15 minutes before death. Allegedly, political agony has begun in Russia, and the president is also hiding somewhere. In short, a huge amount of nonsense. People who are outside of culture and history perceive everything that is happening as a disaster, but in fact, history says that wars have never been easy for Russia, but mostly it won.
It was hard, not as originally planned, but the result was usually victorious. And now there is such reasoning that that’s it, Russia is finished – let’s think about what will happen next. This “later” will not happen. Russia, to one degree or another, perhaps overdoing it, will achieve all the goals it sets for itself.
Now it seems that some kind of “hundred-year war” has begun between Russia and the West. But this will subside, and more pragmatic people who are not involved in this campaign will come to the West, negotiations will begin, the search for solutions, and so on.
English version :: Read in English Latvia. Linderman about Latvian hatred and Russian resistance