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BBC News
Last Updated: Thursday, 5 May, 2005, 15:26 GMT 16:26 UK

Russia denies Baltic 'occupation'

An artist carries a canvas in front of a police line near the
Monument of freedom during the 15th anniversary of the proclamation
of the country's independence in Riga, Latvia
The Baltic-Russian row has escalated ahead of VE Day
Russia has denied it illegally annexed the Baltic republics of
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in 1940.

It has also rejected demands to admit illegally occupying the three
countries at the end of World War II.

A Kremlin spokesman said Soviet troops were deployed with the
agreement of the Baltic governments of the time.

Correspondents say the annexation issue has provoked a major
diplomatic row as Russia prepares to host celebrations to mark the
end of World War II in Europe.

Soviet authority was established in the Baltics in 1940.

German forces then held the states from 1941 until the Soviet army
returned in 1945.

EU and US pressure

Russia has made defiant remarks on the issue of the occupation.

"There was no occupation. There were agreements at the time with
the legitimately elected authorities in the Baltic countries,"
the Kremlin's European affairs chief Sergei Yastrzhembsky said
on Thursday.

The EU - which now includes the three Baltic republics - and the
US want Moscow to recognise that the Red Army occupied large parts
of Eastern Europe after the retreat of the Nazis at the end of
World War II.

European Commission Vice-President Guenter Verheugen urged Moscow
earlier this week to admit the illegality of Soviet rule in the
Baltics.

US President George Bush said in a TV interview to be broadcast on
Thursday that he would remind Russian President Vladimir Putin
about the Soviet occupation of the Baltics when they met in
oscow next week for VE Day celebrations.

The heads of two of the three Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania,
are boycotting the events in Moscow, but Latvian leaders have said
they will attend.

On Wednesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov suggested the
defeat of Hitler far outweighed the USSR's long occupation of
Eastern Europe after World War II.

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 Estonia seeks occupation payment
Estonia plans to press Russia for compensation for damage it says
was caused during decades of Soviet rule.

The process began as the Baltic state's special commission presented
parliament with the so-called "White Book" detailing the damage.

The document says Estonia lost 180,000 people during the Soviet
occupation in 1940-41 and then again in 1944-91 after four years
of Nazi rule.

It says the presence of the Soviet army alone cost Estonia $4bn.

However, Estonian lawmakers - who were given the document earlier
this week - admit that the process is likely to be lengthy and
will anger Russia, the main successor to the Soviet Union.

Leonid Slutsky, deputy head of Russian parliament's committee
on external affairs, has already told Moscow's Echo Moskvy
radio that Estonia's plans amount to "anti-Russian gibberish".

'Another 10 years'

A draft resolution by Estonia's parliament urged the government
to submit a report by 1 January 2005, detailing the feasibility
of any legal action against Moscow.


ESTONIA'S FOREIGN MASTERS
  Russia takes control of Estonia in the 1700s from Sweden
Germany invades in 1918; takes formal control in peace treaty
with Russia's new Soviet rulers
  Estonia declares independence in 1918
  Soviet troops invade Estonia in 1940 allowed in Hitler-Stalin
pact 60,000 Estonians die or are deported in first month of
occupation Hitler invades in 1941, backed by Estonian fighters
The Red Army returns in 1944, remains until early 1990s
  "We would first like to see that the government makes a
realistic
prognosis based on international laws," parliamentary
constitutional commission chairman Urmas Reinsalu told BBC News
Online.
  Mr Reinsalu also said lawmakers wanted to have further debates
on the findings of the book, which took the special commission
investigating the Nazi and Soviet occupation 12 years to compile.
  Earlier, the head of the commission, Vello Sallo, told Russia's
Interfax news agency that "scientists will have to work for at
least another 10 years" to get more detailed data.
  Mr Salo also explained that the document "mostly centred on the
Soviet period" because "the German occupation continued for a
relatively short period of time".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/3708153.stm
Published: 2004/05/12 19:40:47 GMT