Novosti Press
March 20, 2006
Kauno Diena – March 6, 2006
The media reacted quite painfully to President Vladimir Putin’s statement made during his visit to Hungary and the Czech Republic about Russia’s “moral responsibility” for Soviet troops’ intervention in those countries in 1956 and 1968, respectively. Analysts say that, having chosen a course towards warmer relations with Central Europe, the Kremlin is trying to split the unity of European countries that suffered at the hands of the Soviet Union and to isolate the Baltic countries and Poland. “The international press maintains that the Russian President’s apologies related to the suppression of national movements in Hungary and the Czech Republic are a painful slap in the face of the Baltic states. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have long tried to make Russia, as the Soviet Union’s successor, apologize for the offences caused during Soviet occupation.”
