With the accession of the Baltic countries in 2004 EU and NATO for the first time had a direct border with the successor state of the former Soviet Union, the Russian Federation, as well as member states with a sizable Russian minority population. The Baltic states understandibly considered this accession step a life insurance against Russian attempts to reinstate hegemony over their nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the latest starting in 2007 the Russian Federation then made clear that it considered Baltic EU and NATO accession a security threat.

In the years since tensions between EU/Nato and Russia have increased and have reached a new high with Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, and the accession of the formerly neutral countries Sweden and Finland to NATO.

It is in this situation that we have invited Maris Hellrand, a prominent freelance journalist from Tallinn, Estonia, to talk to us about life at a focal point of new EAST-WEST-tension.