The Baltics' Assessment of Russia
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A long, long, read. But the insights into the Russian mentality from the perspective of the Baltic countries is fascinating.
None of it is good.
According to Toots (An Estonian security service chief), an intrinsic element of Russian society is pokazukha: pretending everything is fine while reality is anything but. It also applies, at least partly, to Russian intelligence, no matter that it’s a powerful system employing thousands.
„Chaos is a trait of Russian culture. There always needs to be a shepherd; otherwise, it’s anarchy,“ remarks Toots, who grew up in the Russian-majority eastern Estonian city of Kohtla-Järve. While discussing Russia, he purposefully uses the word „adversary“ instead of „enemy“, which he believes is unnecessarily charged. When engaged in a struggle with Russia, one can expect them to be excessively emotional, but also relentless. They are great, ambitious, merciless, and most of all, cruel.
Toots wasn’t surprised by the atrocities committed in Bucha. Nor were any other of the counterintelligence agents I interviewed in Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania. They’re aware of how Russians conducted themselves in the Baltics during the Second World War. Of how they conducted themselves before that. Of how they’ve always behaved. The West lacks such awareness.
„[The West is] fortunate,“ Toots remarks. „We’re a buffer between them and Russia. They’ve forgotten a lot and think Russia is just like them.“
It isn’t. And Putin isn’t the only issue.
„When the war began, we were worried about people saying it was only Putin’s war,“ says Director General of the Latvian State Security Service Normunds Mežviets as we speak in a soundproof office in a featureless building located in a suburb of Riga. His diction is soft, brisk, and punctilious, just like that of your favorite psychiatrist. Russians are no strangers to Mežviets. He grew up among many Russian-speakers and scuffles were an everyday occurrence.
„I witnessed Russian mentality every single day.“
Mežviets’s colleagues in the other Baltic states echo his sentiment.
„Obviously, you can’t abstractly accuse an entire nation,“ says long-time Director General of the Estonian Internal Security Service Arnold Sinisalu. „But a society and a nation constitute a whole. The state may brainwash, but the germ of chauvinism still springs from the people itself.“
When Director of the Lithuanian State Security Department Darius Jauniškis served in the Soviet military, he was constantly confronted by Russian soldiers with an intent to dominate.
„I fought them,“ he says, „because I knew that as soon as you submit to their will, you become their slave. But if you strike back, then you might even earn their trust.“
„If you want to know Russia, then don’t go to St. Petersburg or Moscow,“ says Toots. He once spent six months in Kronstadt, a stone’s throw from St. Petersburg but filled with an entirely different breed of people. There, no one removed their hats at the table or knew a single thing about etiquette. Everything was decaying and chair legs were on the verge of snapping off beneath you, but no one lifted a finger to fix anything, simply sighing „Ah…“ and giving a dismissive a wave of the hand. The atmosphere was infused with something intrinsically foreign to the West – Russian society is accustomed to suffering. An injustice that sends Parisians out onto the streets won’t make a single resident of Novosibirsk scratch the back of their necks.
„You can’t understand Russia through books or analyses,“ Jauniškis adds. „You have to live there a while.“
„Look at what they did in the Second World War,“ Sinisalu says when we discuss the mass graves, rapes, and deportations in Ukraine. „It’s the exact same.“ Sinisalu’s maternal grandparents were deported to Siberia, where both perished. What’s happening in Ukraine today has been seen and endured before in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius.
„Everything comes back full-circle; nothing changes,“ a 90-year-old former dentist says to me at my grandfather’s birthday celebration. My grandfather is turning 96 and a few months later, he sends me a draft article calling on people to stop using expressions like „the Soviet regime“, as he believes there was no Soviet Union. „After the breakup of the 20th-century Russian empire, only those who carried out orders were declared villains,“ he writes angrily. In his view, Russian society as a whole carries the responsibility... officers of the Baltic security services do not describe Russia’s imperialism and brutality as a military tactic, but a rampant social norm...I believed that their mentality changed over the years and they had a reckoning after the war. That would have been normal,“ Jauniškis says. „But I was mistaken:“
They come off as children who have been wronged and are now seeking revenge,“ Jauniškis adds. He claims the Soviet way of thinking is so deeply embedded in Russian society that even their manner of resistance still dates to the 1970s: people sit in their kitchen, drink vodka, and complain, but as soon as they leave their apartments, they report to their jobs and work obediently till evening. Nevertheless, Mežviets says this conqueror’s mentality is no mere Soviet remnant, but extends far deeper.
Surprisingly, the heads of all three Baltic counterintelligence agencies answer with the same name when I ask about the origins of Russia’s present-day mentality: Ivan the Terrible. A ruler who lived almost 500 years ago, conducted successful military campaigns aimed at territorial expansion, and stood out for his exceptional cruelty, even slaying his own son in a fit of rage. Russia’s modern-day brutality and expansionism is a carbon copy of Ivan the Terrible’s murderous imperialism.
„They only respect force,“ says Jauniškis, „and if you answer theirs with your own, then you might even become friends.“ The principle is diametrically opposed to the suit-and-tie diplomacy and ordinary negotiations to which the West is accustomed.
„For Russia, both sides winning equals a loss,“ remarks an Estonian entrepreneur who has organized complex business transactions with Russians for decades. „They need for there to always be winners and losers, even when negotiating.“ And only they may come out on top.
„There, diplomacy is a sign of weakness,“ says Mežviets. „Russia only recognizes force. It’s hard for the West to understand, as Westerners hold different values and believe that others do as well.“
Jauniškis compares contemporary Russian society to the medieval Mongols. Though Lithuania once joined forces with Russian princes to counter the Mongolian hordes, he feels that Russia switched sides given the behavior of its officers and soldiers alike. „They’re animals,“ he frankly states.
When the Baltic states regained their independence in 1991, Russia also became temporarily more democratic. Elections were seemingly held, leaders spoke of opening up, and everything appeared to be changing for the better. But only the West believed Russia had taken a turn.
„When we made our plans, we assumed that Russia would go back to being its old self and the empire would return at least a year later,“ said Raivo Vare, who served as Minister of State at the time. He’s had a lifelong interest in Russia and lived there for 17 years. „Practical experience“ was the basis for the assessment.
„Alas, we were overly optimistic,“ Vare adds. It only took a few months before Russia began manipulating Estonia again, this time with oil.
Everyone who works for a Baltic counterintelligence agency asserts that nothing will change.
And the last comments:
I drive back to Estonia. A few days later, we celebrate my great-aunt’s birthday. She’s turning 100. Her children say she’s in good shape, still as sharp as a tack, and climbed up onto the roof to teach the chimneysweep a thing or two just a few years ago. However, she hasn’t slept well since February 24th. Insomnia struck after reading the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
„She’s afraid,“ say her children. „She’s afraid the rapists will come back again.“
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@Renauda Considering your comments about the Russian mentality in other threads, I thought you might find this interesting.
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@Renauda Considering your comments about the Russian mentality in other threads, I thought you might find this interesting.
