Mr. Shvydkoi, who is just back from trips to Estonia and Lithuania, has pointed out in a RIA interview that Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) members were fighting not against the state, but against civilians and that they killed both Russians and Latvians.
Having said that, political differences between Russia and the three Baltic countries should not stand in the way of cultural cooperation. "The less we politicize our relations, the better," emphasized Mr. Shvydkoi. "However Russia's relations with the Baltic states may develop, they are close neighbors of ours, with whom we lived together not only in the 20th century, but in previous centuries, as well."
Under no circumstances may the Baltic countries hold the post-Soviet Russia accountable for mistakes of the now-defunct Soviet Union, Mr. Shvydkoi maintains.
The Russian official spoke against a lop-sided reading of history. The events of 1940 are a highly sensitive issue, and referring to them as "liberation" would be just as biased as calling them "occupation," Mr. Shvydkoi said, adding that there was enough evidence to prove both interpretations.
A short while ago, members of Estonia's research and arts communities forwarded a letter to the UN, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, pointing out that Russia had absolutely no grounds to accuse their country of human rights violations. Mr. Shvydkoi, who had met with quite a few ethnic Russian residents during his latest trip to the Baltics, dismissed this statement as untrue, saying that ethnic minorities were indeed discriminated against both in Estonia and the other two countries.
For his part, Mr. Shvydkoi described as groundless Estonia's accusations that Russia had stolen Estonian presidential regalia. "Those regalia found themselves in Moscow back in the Soviet era, and should now be returned to Estonia," he said, classifying the issue as a legal one. He confirmed the fact that two of the presidential emblem's paste gems were missing. "We will have them restored and attached to the [presidential] order, so that it does not seem like we are trying to deceive someone," he said.
The Estonian President's regalia, dating from pre-WWII years, include a gold pendant and an emblem shaped as an eight-pointed star, with a representation of the national emblem in the center. They are now stored at the Armory Palace of Moscow's Kremlin.
