TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Spooked by Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, Estonia is hoping for a strong signal of support from President Barack Obama when he arrives Wednesday in a country that two decades ago had Russian troops on its soil.
That Obama picked Estonia as his only stop before a NATO summit in Wales is reassuring to Estonia and Baltic neighbors Latvia and Lithuania, which, like Ukraine, were ruled by Moscow until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
“I always knew that America is our key and trusted ally,” said Juozas Kairutis, a 69-year-old retired teacher in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. “Western Europe is too pragmatic. They do not understand what all this means and probably would turn away from Baltic states just like they did in 1940.”
During World War II, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany invaded Baltic countries over the years. The U.S. and many other Western countries never recognized the nearly five-decade Soviet occupation, during which tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians were deported to Siberia.
After the Soviet Union crumbled, the Baltic countries turned to the West and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004, irritating Russia.