Moscow to Expand Effort to Defend Rights of Russian Compatriots in Baltic Countries

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 28 – The Russian foreign ministry together with the Moscow Foundation for the Support and Defense of Compatriots Living Abroad has put together plans for improving the defense of citizens of the Russian Federation as well as other ethnic Russians living in the Baltic countries.
    That was the message delivered by various speakers at a conference in Kaliningrad this week on “The Status of Russian Compatriots in the Countries of the Baltic Region” (vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2025/03/28/1100787-rossiya-namerena-uluchshit-zaschitu-sootechestvennikov-v-stranah-pribaltiki).
    Aleksandr Udaltsov, the head of the Foundation for the Support and Defense of Compatriots, said that such an effort was needed because pressure on such people by the Baltic governments was intensifying and existing means of seeking to defend these people via international human rights groups no longer work.
    Among the steps participants called for are the preparation of a list of violations of the rights of Russians in the Baltic countries, a more precise definition of compatriot so that people in that category will know what they can expect, and an expanded effort by official agencies and NGOs in Russia to defend compatriots abroad in general and in the Baltic region in particular.
    These moves are clearly in preparation for a larger Kremlin effort against the Baltic countries and thus merit attention even if the steps the Kaliningrad meeting outlined seem anodyne.