Lithuania prepares for war, reinforcing its border against Russian tanks

NATO intercepts Russian warplanes violating Estonian airspace | BBC News

Putin wants war.  He wants to resurrect the USSR. 

New film highlights fear in Estonia, Finland and Sweden of Putin’s aims beyond Ukraine

Arajs Kommando: The WW2 Extermination Group That Massacred Thousands | Nazi Collaborators

I have no reason to post this other than the fact that my parents were Latvian immigrants to the U.S.A. in the late 1940's and they both lived in Riga, Latvia during the time of the atrocities documented in this video.  They never spoke to me about this.  My father used to discuss these times with a fellow Latvian drinking buddy of his.  They spoke in Latvian and I heard the name Ulmanis mentioned many times.  It appeared that my father's friend liked Ulmanis and my father did not.

Btw, I wasn't fluent in Latvian because my father felt heavily discriminated against because of his immigrant status and therefore he didn't want me or my sister speaking the language.  I know a few words in Latvian, but I'm not like other Latvian children in the U.S.A. who have a full command of the language.  I've always regretted this. 

U.S. and Baltic states oppose Russian 'rewriting of history'

From Reuters:

VILNIUS (Reuters) - The United States joined Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Thursday in opposing any Russian attempts to rewrite history after President Vladimir Putin said the Baltic states had consented to their 1940 annexation by the Soviet Union.

history

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (not pictured), at Lancaster House in London, Britain July 21, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo

“We stand firmly against any attempts by Russia to rewrite history in order to justify the 1940 occupation and annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in a joint statement with the foreign ministers of the three Baltic countries.

The statement marked the 80th anniversary of a 1940 declaration by then-acting U.S. Secretary of State Sumner Welles condemning the Soviet takeover of the three countries.

The Estonian Foreign Affairs ministry said on Thursday it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest “recent statements seeking to portray the occupation of Estonia and its annexation to the Soviet Union as legitimate.”

“Russia is trying to give the impression that legitimacy can be born at the threat of a weapon, repression by mutual agreement - this is extremely cynical,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in a statement.Putin wrote last month that incorporating Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into the Soviet Union “was implemented on a contractual basis, with the consent of the elected authorities.”

“This was in line with international and state law of that time”, he added in the article for U.S. magazine The National Interest.

The European Union and NATO have accused Russia of waging a campaign of disinformation to try to destabilise the West by exploiting divisions in society. Russia denies any such tactics.

The European Commission said in January it would not tolerate the distortion of historic facts after Putin suggested Poland shared responsibility for starting World War Two because it connived in Nazi German plans in 1938 to dismember Czechoslovakia.

Polish President Andrzej Duda accused Putin of “historical lies”.In 1989, during the period of glasnost, or openness, under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Moscow denounced the secret 1939 Soviet-Nazi pact to carve up Poland and the Baltic states which allowed the Soviet Union to annex the region.

Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia all won independence from the Soviet Union as it collapsed and now are members of both the EU and NATO.

From: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-baltics-russia-pompeo/u-s-and-baltic-states-oppose-russian-rewriting-of-history-idUSKCN24O1XQ

My parents were immigrants from Latvia.  They left their homeland because they didn't want to live under Russian communist rule.