DISINFO: The revival of Nazism is the foundation of Baltic independence
SUMMARY
The persecution of Russian-speaking populations, the erasure of any memory of Soviet soldiers' exploits, the complete revision of history, and the revival of Nazism have all become the foundations of modern 'independence' in the Baltic states.
The construction of memorials for Nazi collaborators in the Baltic states has become routine. Against this backdrop, the desecration of Soviet war memorials continues—all of this met with complete silence, or even tacit approval, from the so-called 'civilised' European states.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim about alleged Nazism in the Baltic states, which is part of a broader disinformation narrative about the “revival” of Nazism in the West and large-scale historical revisionism used for anti-Russian goals.
The Baltic states have clear security concerns linked to Russia's aggression toward neighbouring countries, and how it affected the security situation in the region in general.
All Baltic countries highlight Russia's aggression as a primary national security concern. For example, Lithuania's National Threat Assessment 2024 highlights as its principal national threat Russia's war against Ukraine and the strengthening of its armed forces. Similarly, the annual report by the Latvian State Security Service 2024 also emphasises that Russia's war in Ukraine is a threat that require improvements to its national security system. The 2024 assessment of Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service is that Russia’s military reform required for its war against Ukraine "entails a significant increase in Russian forces near the Estonian border in the coming years".
Moreover, pro-Kremlin outlets repeatedly invoke World War II imagery and attempts to portray the West as anti-Semitic and neo-fascist. In this context, pro-Kremlin narratives distort and simplify a sensitive and thorny period of Baltic history, during which the Baltics were occupied multiple times by two totalitarian regimes, that is, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. These narratives discredit any opposition to Soviet occupation as “Nazi”, and continue to justify the Soviet notion of exclusive “spheres of influence”.
This claim clearly disregards the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states in 1940. The Kremlin conducted a forced annexation of the Baltic states in June 1940 following Soviet military occupation and the forced installation of “people’s governments”. On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression (Molotov-Ribbentrop) Pact whose secret protocols divided the territories belonging to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into Soviet and Nazi spheres of influence. Like other countries mentioned in the pact, they lost their independence and territories, while giving Stalin a free hand in the Baltic states.
Read similar cases that Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic authorities associate themselves with Hitler, that Russophobia and neo-Nazism the norm in the Baltic states and Ukraine, that direct Nazism is now the norm in Baltic states and Ukraine, that Polish and Baltics' Russophobia may lead to breaking diplomatic relations with Russia, and that European Nazism is alive and it manifests itself in Russophobia.