Arrival of Ukrainian refugees fuels ethnic tension in Latvia and Estonia

Juris Kaza Riga, 23 Mar The arrival in the Baltics of tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine forces the authorities to manage logistical issues, but also to protect refugees from the hostility of Russian supporters among the large ethnic Russian population of Latvia and Estonia. Thus, the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian authorities must suddenly face problems ranging from accommodation, care and education of newly arrived children to the protection of refugees from trafficking gangs and the hostility of supporters of Russia's policies. Local Estonian and Latvian media are concerned that stories of suffering of newly arrived Ukrainians (mostly women with children) will also aggravate hostility between ethnic Estonians and Latvians and predominantly Russian supporters of President Vladimir Putin, as well as against Russians as a group. Until the war, ethnic relations were mostly peaceful. However, a survey conducted in the first week of March by the social research center SKDS and the Latvian public broadcaster reveals that 90% of citizens with Latvian as their mother tongue support Ukraine, compared to only 22% of Russian speakers. Nationalists on social media took advantage of this survey to assert that there is a “fifth column” made up of a significant portion of Latvian ethnic Russians, many of them descendants of Russians relocated to that Baltic country during the Soviet occupation as workers in Soviet industries or in the army. Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins repeatedly called for unity and solidarity among all the inhabitants of the country and to avoid expressions of anger against the Russians. Still, some nationalist politicians and commentators argue that this view ignores the need to confront and challenge the obvious supporters of Putin and the Russian invasion. National and local governments must manage these potential growing tensions while also having to process numbers of asylum seekers never seen since the first months of World War II, when Poles and some Austrian and German Jews found refuge in the then neutral Baltics. There have already been incidents with Ukrainian flags and support posters torn off in some neighborhoods of Riga or some aggression for wearing a Ukrainian emblem. There are also problems within the Ukrainian community of Latvia, one of the largest ethnic minorities after the Russians. The Ukrainian embassy recently released a statement condemning several local Ukrainian organizations for being pro-Kremlin, something that Irina Dukule, president of the Latvian Union of Ukrainian Societies organization vehemently denied in statements to the media. On Tuesday, the President of Latvia, Egils Levits, addressed the students of the Ukrainian School in Riga, which has welcomed nearly 130 new students from among the thousands of refugees arriving in the Latvian capital. “The Russians are keeping a low profile” waiting for the end of the war in Ukraine,” Juri Estam, a publicist and former political commentator of Estonian television, told Efe, Juri Estam, from the capital, Tallinn. However, the “Postimees” reports that Ukrainian war refugees are reluctant to come to a predominantly Russian area of eastern Estonia. “Ukrainians are somewhat afraid to come to Ida-Viru County. They don't insist on coming here because they know our region,” said a local official, quoted by the newspaper. In Riga, the coalition between Social Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives and Nationalists tries to avoid a critical moment: the May 9 commemoration of the Soviet “victory” over Nazi Germany at a memorial site in Riga that many Latvians consider a monument to the oppressive Soviet occupation for nearly 50 years. The mayor of Riga, Liberal Martins Stakis, is organizing a photo exhibition of the Ukrainian war near the so-called “Victory Monument” and assures that no public gatherings will be allowed there on May 9. In previous years, even despite restrictions due to the pandemic, May 9, it attracted thousands of people, mainly ethnic Russians, to lay flowers, listen to speeches and musical performances. Representatives of the Latvian Union of Russians (LKS), in the municipal opposition in Riga, insist that people have the right to lay flowers for soldiers who died freeing Latvia from Nazi occupation. Meanwhile, in Lithuania, ethnic Russians account for about 5% of the population. CHIEF jkz/egw/jgb