Russia and the Baltic States: is Russian imperialism dead?
ENSince the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has been trying to define its identity in an ever-changing international security environment where it has seen itself as a great power. This belief is further conveyed through Russia's attempts to influence the policies of other states in the region, most notably those in the near abroad including Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (i.e. the Baltic countries), which are regarded as part of Russia's sphere of influence. For Russia, and previously the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries were seen as a buffer zone against Western encroachment. Through a number of policies and policy levers (i.e. diplomatic pressure, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, military threats and peacekeeping deployments, economic leverage and energy controls, exploiting ethnic and social discontent, and discrediting governments via political influence and penetrating intelligence services), Russia has tried to maintain its influence upon them in order to manipulate their foreign, security and domestic strategies, and thus far, it has been unsuccessful in its attempts to do so. [From the publication]
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