News

Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Ambassadors to Germany sent a letter to the German news portal ZEIT ONLINE, drawing the attention to the fact that the Baltic states had been forcefully incorporated into the Soviet Union and illegally annexed. Most Western countries, including Germany, have never recognized the illegal annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union.

The three Ambassadors pointed out that the Baltic countries had not been established after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but restored their independence, which had been interrupted by a period of Soviet occupation, and, thus, declared the continuity of their statehood. Therefore, the Baltic states are not successor states of the former Soviet Union, nor have they inherited its entire rights. Thus, viewed purely legally and politically, they cannot be referred to as former Soviet Republics. “We would like to stress that referring to the Baltic countries as successor states of the former Soviet Union is historically incorrect and inaccurate in terms of international law,” reads the letter of the Ambassadors of the three Baltic states.

The three Ambassadors reacted to the rubric about the Soviet legacy, under which a series of articles was published by the news portal ZEIT ONLINE. The letter was signed by the Ambassador of Lithuania Deividas Matulionis, the Ambassador of Latvia Elita Kuzma and the Ambassador of Estonia, Dr. Mart Laanemäe. The news portal ZEIT ONLINE reacted expeditiously and benevolently to the letter, and promised to stop using the inaccurate term.