POSITION OF THE KEY POLITICAL PARTIES OF THE BALTIC STATES ON THE UKRAINIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT

Abstract

The article analyses the approaches of the key political parties of the Baltic states to the Ukrainian issue: their assessment of the degree of the Russian threat to the regional space, the interpretation of the events of Russian aggression in the Crimea and the Donbass, views on the prospects for relations with Ukraine and the Russian Federation. It is confirmed that most of the Baltic political forces take a solely pro-Ukrainian stance, which makes it possible to assess the prospects for further development of stable cooperation between them and Ukraine as extremely high and practically independent from the electoral cycle. It is noted that the most consistent partners of Ukraine are the right political forces such as the Lithuanian "The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats" and the Estonian Reform Party. By their ideology, they are natural allies of Ukrainian pro-European political parties. The radical nationalists from the Baltic states (the Estonian Conservative People's Party, the Latvian National Alliance), for whom Ukraine is a natural ally in counteracting the Russian threat, are also extremely friendly to our state. Centrist and left-wing parties from the Baltic states are also showing solidarity with Ukraine in foreign policy matters. The accusations about their possible ties to the Kremlin are usually part of the internal political struggle and have no real basis. However, there are indeed political forces in the Baltic states that hold a pro-Russian stance and, in some cases, even defend the interests of Russia in the European political space, becoming an element of the Kremlin’s hybrid strategy aimed o destabilase it. The most influential of them is the Latvian party "Harmony", which retains the largest faction in the parliaments of the last convocations. But the refusal of other political forces to form coalition with it demonstrates the toxicity of such views for the majority of the electorate – so its prospects for influencing state policy are insignificant. Overall, we suggest that there are no effective threats to the unity of the key actors of the Baltic States’ political environment around Ukraine’s support for its fight for independence and the European future.