More from the Baltic scroungers, nothing new, they are begging from the EU to the tune of 2% GDP. Imagine, that the average German is going out to work to pay for them. Russia should pop a bill on them for economic support for the last 50 years, that should be a pretty penny. Then, they should claim damages for the breach of fundamental rights of ethnic Russian. Yet another pretty penny.

If the Latvians are so impoverished and desperate, why don't they go to the real source of their condition and ask the US and NATO and their fifth column in their own country to pay for all the damages and destitution Latvia has been subjected to since the dissolution of the Soviet Union? If what they are saying is true, now that they are "independent," they can make up for all their economic losses in a couple of years, especially when they continue buying US weapons to be able to integrate into NATO.

(1) Do you mean to say that Soviet Moscow caused NO environmental damage in the Baltics?? I could literally fill pages with examples of gross and wanton environmental vandalism directly caused by Moscow’s policies and by Moscow’s agencies in the Baltics throughout the Soviet years, and in my visits to Estonia I have seen some of it with my own eyes. This reality is made all the more galling because the Baltics themselves wanted none of it – they did not want Moscow’s occupation, Moscow’s Communism, Moscow’s inept policies or Moscows terror and force of arms which kept Moscow’s rule in place for five decades. (2) In response to Armen’s views relating to the impoverishment caused by the Soviet experience, in 1939, which was its last pre-Soviet year of freedom, Estonia’s standard of living was slightly higher than Finland’s. In 1991, when the Soviets finally left, it was less than a quarter of Finland’s. Had Estonia not experienced a 50-year Soviet occupation, it would have a standard of living on a par with Finland’s today; as it is, I believe it is still not quite at the point of the EU average. It will probably take another 30 years for Estonia to finally overcome the economic devastation which the Soviet experience imposed on it. However, for some years already Estonia is no longer the recipient of foreign aid, but a provider of foreign aid to some non-EU Eastern European countries, and to some Third World countries. Also, in the context of the current world economic crisis, Estonia has neither asked for nor been given any financial bail-outs. (3) EU development funds are invested in Estonia according to the same standard criteria as apply generally within the EU.

Do you mean to say that Soviet Moscow caused NO environmental damage in the Baltics?? I could literally fill pages with examples of gross and wanton environmental vandalism directly caused by Moscow’s policies and by Moscow’s agencies in the Baltics throughout the Soviet years, and in my visits to Estonia I have seen some of it with my own eyes. Latvia would be no different, as indeed neither is Russia itself. But whereas Russia’s own Soviet-era pollution is its own handiwork, the Baltics wanted none of it – they did not want Moscow’s rule, Moscow’s Communism, Moscow’s inept policies nor Moscow's terror and force of arms which kept that rule in place for five decades. In response to Armen’s views relating to the impoverishment caused by the Soviet experience, in 1939 Estonia’s standard of living was slightly higher than Finland’s. In 1991, when the Soviets finally left, it was less than a quarter of Finland’s. Had Estonia not experienced a 50-year Soviet occupation, it would have a standard of living on a par with Finland’s today; as it is, I believe it is still not quite at the point of EU average. It will probably take another 30 years for Estonia to finally overcome the economic devastation which the Soviet experience imposed on it, and the same is also true of Latvia and Lithuania. However, Armen might be glad to know that for some years already Estonia is no longer the recipient of foreign aid, but a provider of foreign aid to some non-EU Eastern European countries, and to some Third World countries. Meanwhile, in the context of the current world economic crisis, Estonia has neither asked for nor been given any financial bail-outs.