Russia on Tuesday launched wanted notices against at least three officials from the Baltic countries and three Poles, including Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, against the backdrop of a memorial conflict between these countries of the former communist bloc and Moscow.
The Kremlin cited the opposing view of history held by Moscow and these states to justify this decision. Since the Russian assault on Ukraine in February 2022, this is the first time that Russia has issued a wanted notice against a sitting foreign leader.
“These people are responsible for decisions which are de facto an insult to History, they are people who carry out hostile actions against historical memory, against our country,” denounced the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov .
The Baltic States, which fear the Kremlin’s military ambitions, consider that the USSR occupied them, while Moscow sees itself as a liberator and judges any other approach as a “falsification of History”, a crime in Russia.
According to a notice visible on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is being prosecuted in “a criminal case”, without specifying what crime or offense the leader is accused of.
The Estonian Secretary of State, Taimar Peterkop, was also targeted by a wanted poster, as well as the Minister of Culture of Lithuania, Simonas Kairys.
According to the TASS news agency, the same applies to the Polish head of the National Institute of Memory, Karol Nawrocki, the mayor of the Polish town of Walbrzych, Roman Szelemej, and a former Polish deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Karol Rabenda.
“Intimidation tactics”
“The regime is doing what it has always done: it is trying to stifle freedom […] and to continue to create his own version which is in contradiction with the facts,” reacted Simonas Kairys in a press release sent to AFP.
For his part, Kaja Kallas denounced a “usual intimidation tactic” on the part of Russia.
Russian minorities reside in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, now members of the EU and NATO, and Moscow considers them oppressed there.
Relations have further deteriorated with the conflict in Ukraine. The Baltic countries and Poland have actively supported kyiv for two years in its fight against the Russian army.
Moscow, for its part, has been denouncing for years the fact that the Balts do not accept the fact that the USSR was a liberator against the Nazis and not an occupier.
In recent years, several of these monuments inherited from the USSR after the victory against Nazi Germany have been dismantled in the Baltic countries, as a sign of rejection of the Soviet period.
The Baltic countries and Poland, like Russia’s other western neighbors, say they are seriously considering a Russian attack and are strengthening their military capabilities in the face of this eventuality.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared for his part that he ruled out the idea of invading Poland or Latvia, two countries in which his country has, according to him, “no interests”.
Before the assault on Ukraine at the end of February 2022, many senior Russian officials also repeatedly repeated that a military offensive against kyiv would not take place.
Persistent tensions
Vladimir Putin himself has been the target, since March 2023, of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for the “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children to Russia for two years, which the Russian authorities deny.
In recent weeks, there have been several signs of ongoing tensions between Moscow and the Baltic countries.
On February 6, Russia summoned the charges d’affaires of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, accusing them of “sabotageing” the Russian presidential election in March by refusing to ensure the security of polling stations in Russian embassies on their territory. ground.
In mid-January, Latvia and Estonia decided to end their legal assistance agreements with Russia, with officials from these two countries citing Moscow’s assault on Ukraine as the reason.
Earlier in January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured the Baltics.