Kremlin Official Rejects Claims for Compensating Baltic Occupation
The Baltic states have no grounds to demand compensation from Russia for the Soviet occupation, head of the Kremlin commission for rehabilitating victims of totalitarianism said at a human rights meeting yesterday.
"It is the commission's belief that such claims are unjust and baseless. Russia was itself a victim of a totalitarian regime and suffered just as much as, if not more than, the other Soviet republics," said Mikhail Mityukov, head of the Kremlin Commission for Rehabilitating Victims of Political Reprisals, Vzglyad reported.
Although the Estonian government has not officially requested compensation for the repressions, it did release a document in 2005 that estimates the financial damages of Soviet oppression.
Mityukov cited those estimates as 3 billion euros for environmental damages, and 182,000 euros per repressed citizen (who are legally defined). Latvia, according to the Kremlin official, has put that figure at 145.5 billion euros and Lithuania at 14.5 billion euros.
“Regarding the Baltic states - the problems of rehabilitating victims of poticial repressions are perceived through the prisma of Soviet occupation, which was formulated by those countries,” said Mityukov.
“The victims were first and foremost citizens of the Soviet Union - not foreigners. And Russia cannot provide foreigners a higher level of compensation than it does for its own citizens for the same type of damage,” he argued.
Ott Tammik