You will be in EU and NATO. You have only to continue the reforms and Free Ukraine will be a prosperous state. I have no doubts.

@@arturasandriusaitis8832 Thank you! I really hope so)

The EU does not want Ukraine. I’m sorry. I’m from Sweden and I really like Ukraine, but it will turn into another debt hole, or even worse, another Bulgaria.

@@MrPeterPan I think you are not from Sweden but from russia. Ukraine will be in EU and NATO. Not immediately of course. They have to do the necessary reforms. And not Estonia (or its president) alone will decide this.

@@arturasandriusaitis8832 I am from Sweden lmao. Ukraine won’t be in Eu and nato any time soon

Thanks from Latvia! 🇱🇻🤝🇩🇪

Paldies and danke from a Latvian-American

You can't even protect Ukraine which is near to Germany

Thanks from Estonia

Thanks and support back to Germany from Estonia!

Nah, these are just Putin's ambitions. High presence of Russians is potentially dangerous because Putin may affect politics through culture (at least Baltic governments seem to think so), but come on... People, who keep up with news and understand what Russia is, don't want it - they want to live in a normal econolically growing country.

@@user-lc7ku6je1o I agree with you but in France, Germany etc. you have a second generation problem

@@gastoldamian it doesn’t work like that. I’m from estonia and the only ones who may think like this are elderly soviet women, yet they wouldn’t move to Russia

lmao they are not immigrants, the vast majority of russian people living in baltic states was born there. And also it would be weird to immigrate from shitty Russia to another shithole Easteuropean country

@@romanivannikov4210 There are thousands of russians and ukrainians emigrating to baltic states every year (2015-2020) and even more temporary workers. The new immigrants are usually much happier that they have the chance to live and work here.

I just needed to start somewhere close to the present, the history portion was not the main point

@@MadMacGeopolitics We understand you like foreigner but did you kow that between 1300-1600 years Lithuania was bigger and stronger country then Russia?Many russians lands like Smolensk,Kaluga,Briansk,Belgorod,Riazan was 300 years part of Lithuania?Lithuanian border was 100 km from Moscow 300 years.

@@airisfinglas2628 yea I have heard of that, Lithuania was huge, even bigger than Poland, until they became a United commonwealth. Latvia and Estonian were often under Germanic rule during that time, but came under Swedish rule around 1700. Anyway, it goes without saying Lithuania was huge back then.

@KarlErick Lindberg yep

@@MadMacGeopolitics Be careful, this is russian troll.

I’ve heard there’s a lot of Lithuanians in Chicago

Labas, lietuvi

Sveikas! :D

@@titasjankunas.3685 kaip sakas?

@@Redditorstories12 normaliai kolkas

Same here in Estonia. Although its getting better.

Free Latvia played them dirty with alien passports and broken promises, so understandable how sentiment was passed down to generations and is still happening. The Us vs Them rhetoric should end, but petty politicians keep bringing it up, because it brings in votes from racists. There is no Us vs Them, people of Latvia should understand by how they are being played. Look at the American and Afro-American disputes, do you really want to propogate Latvian and Ruso-Latvian dispute? Especially if day to day life this problem nonexistent people work together to better themselves. Only rasists have problem with this.

Theres tension in estonia and knowing the language is like acceptance in our culture. Tho were pretty lenient on the language for some reason - we shouldnt tho. Every citizen should speak fluent estonian, somehow its just not addressed. Russian isnt our official language and defenetely never will be - even english is more popular.

@@bds4410 Exactly my thoughts. That's just natural. I can't go to Uruguay and demand them to speak Latvian to me. But Russians think they are something special.

Sadly its the same in Lithuania. Give it more 10-20 years. The population of russians that is unwilling to learn will die out and the younger ones will grow to adults by speaking the Baltic language

I don't think they will defend, cuz they need to defend their own country except Poland

@@lullc2985 forest brothers allways be brothers🤙😈

Dont forget us 🇫🇮🇪🇪

Whenever it can, Lithuania will say FU to russia.🤷‍♂️

Lithuania existed centuries ago,

It's a very simplistic way to see their history of getting independent and restoring independence. For restoration of independence, it was a series of events and Estonia was mostly leading them. However, Estonia and Latvia refrained from restoring full independence in 1990 as there were still Soviet forces and institutions ruling here. That didn't seem to mind Lithuania. The real situation in all three states was not different throughout 1990-1991.

@@eksiarvamus If i remember this correctly in the 1990 Estonian government didn't want to say the word "independence" out loud because they were afraid of Russian retaliation. Therefore they only spoke about economic independence and self sustainability.

@@Taivar007 not only retaliation, but restoring full independence right away was unfeasable for all three of them, regardless what they ended up declaring.

Also do you have discord and if yes can you give me your account name because there’re some things I need to discuss with you

also if you don't have Discord or don't have interests please let me know because it's urgent

@@ZarexianMapper oh jeez @masjid#4275

@@ZarexianMapper I didn’t see these comments come in, or the urgency

@@ZarexianMapper what’s ur discord

Its nice to see Swedish account. Greetings from Lithuania. Sweden in 90s provided our 3 armies with infantry weapons that we widely use even today.

@@xwing8029 hey there you go. I am glad to see the baltics doing so well these days

We're catching up, give us some time. It was 50 years of hell and we trying to rebuild our minds, economics, etc... We won't let you down, just be patient :)

>excellent in innovative solutions and digitalization

Not Latvia :-(

Someone else said that Lithuania worked better with the Russians and that’s why they have less Russians, I think I will listen to what you have to say, seems much more reasonable.

@@MadMacGeopolitics in Lithuania was guerilla war from 1944 to 1959.In this was died around 35 000 soviet soldiers and 50 000 lithuanian guerillas.That a main reason why russian colonists did not arrive in Lithuania.

​@@airisfinglas2628 As for the Lithuanian Russians, let us not forget the Kaliningrad region. The Lithuanian part is there.

@@leieparnamae797 you are right.All Kaliningrad region are ancient lithuanian lands-Prussia.Prussians was like lithuanians-same language and culture.I am myself half of prussian.My town was 9 km from Prussia border😁

@@airisfinglas2628 Exactement: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jMmXqrl_stbDmHk.html

Man I gained like 200 subscribers and 30,000 views on this video in the last month

@@MadMacGeopolitics I just got recommended this video and I'm now subscribed.

sure, but there are too few of us to have a long term effect.

Točna, piekrītu)

Well this is not entirely true. There are many laws regarding citizenship and language laws, which discriminates russian minority. Yes there is a russian aggression, but some countries (baltics, ukraine etc.) do some mistakes which enables russian propaganda to be taken notice. The baltics arent that important to europe, I mean, if switzerland would apply EU membership, no one would bat an eye about their economic (potential) power. Simply as that, the baltics must improve on lot of things and cannot finger point on russia to distract from their problems.

Discrimination against the Russian minority? It should be a clue from what was said in the video about our government’s being too stable that nobody is being discriminated against. I may have more respect towards our Russian minority than you simply based on that i do not see them as people who would silently sit down if they were treated unfairly. As for what is actually going on, we live distinctly different lives to a degree where we often work separately and live in different areas. Russian Estonians and Estonians talking really isn’t a very common occurrence. Personally i think they have many great qualities but that’s not relevant. Because of people who would prefer for us to have different schools based on different mother languages and claim to represent the minority, instead of studying together in Estonian schools, they get worse education, far worse Estonian language skills, severely constricted social connections, worse paying jobs because of the previous points and end up being quite segregated through their life because we have socially very little common ground. They have less opportunities overall because you need to know the country's language to be more successful. Admittedly that goes more for the older generations because they have a stronger refusal to assimilating. There are a lot of great young people and it is nice too see them succeed. The older people are very proud. They are also more conservative and content with less. You can hear their largest fascination when arriving here was store shelves being stocked with food. Now i am sure you want to bring up the grey passports. Anybody can get a citizenship if they know the language of our country. Some did get it, some don’t want to. They were imported here and lived here for a half a century and they live their own life without knowing any word of our language. I mean this literally. Why don’t they want to get a citizenship? They are proud to belong to large people. With a grey passport you can work in Estonia and freely travel to Russia and back. As often as you want to or need to, i think. They don’t need a visa from Russia even, they can do what they want. I don’t know too much about it but the people who still have a grey passport after all this time and who you would like to call being discriminated against, they often aren’t very fascinating by the idea of getting locked into a foreign country that they don’t care much about. Some who have grown up more recently and wished to take a citizenship exam do feel a little insulted because they already feel this is their country and they belong here. Overall the number of grey passports is dwindling i believe and you only really hear complaints about it from foreigners trying to strawman some personal point across.

@@michaeljaggi9780 Am from Narva and you almost fully right.

@@erkim7547 I am Latvian Russian myself. Almost all u have said is similar to my point of view except one thing - assimilation. The thing is, that(at least in Latvia) our societies(Russians and Latvians) are quite well integrated in one another and integration doesn't stops. The only difference is language and medias we watch. BUT! We(Russians) don't want to be assimilated(lose our national identity and take another), but government tries to do it. We hate it. We are against it. The difference between integration and assimilation is very big. When 1st - government tries to help and develop both sides of integration. In our case that means, that language of both sides can be easily learned and culture and history of both sides get respect and are thought at school(that's not true for most minority-majority cases, but when half of your capital are russians and in all important cities quoter of people are russians that makes sense). When 2nd - goverment ignores or even are against your language, history and culture. Currently I live in scenario nr.2 I am not against Latvians, Latvia or even sometimes Latvian political live, but I certainly hate when latvian politicians(not all and not significant, but ones that are very loud) call me and my family an occupants, my language importance in government's eyes is below german and when latvians think that USSR = Russian Empire and Russians.

I think i know what you mean. We have that one side patriotism here too but as i feel people have come more together during the past ten years, that aspect has also calmed down. I guess it boils down to not feeling like you have to fight for everything that vaguely describes you and be able to accept some changes. The people who are still like that are honestly a little .. ignorant of peoples everyday life. I do wish they would put some more intelligent thought behind what they claim to stand for. One of more recent changes in my country recently has been that a conservative party rose and they began taking votes away from the old corrupt~ minority favored party. I am looking forward to what kind of changes that could bring. The previous two used to rile up tension such as you described for their political benefit and pretended to be opposing forces. What they have in common right now is their incompetence.

Hi from Latvia. 👋

Hello Fellow Latvian brother, I never manage to find People talking about The Baltics, Ita gun watching this

@@roombussr5676 hey) indeed. Especially from far west

It’s like 3 siblings little cats meowing at the same times, idk why but it’s so cute if you imagine it :3

@@ramonemiliochaconperdomo7225 :p cute yourself... (i am estonian and a bit resentful of being called cute... but i guess you meant well, so no hard feelings.)

@@p1rgit I was talking of the countries as a whole and in an carton way, why are you resentful for that??

@@ramonemiliochaconperdomo7225 ok then, if cartoon way :) meow! :D

@Soviet aš irgi

Not so short at all, Estonia was annexed into Russia during Peter I's reign, and before they were simply part of Sweden,Poland or the knights.

@@MrKakibuy Well it depends on perspective and time table in place.

@@artursbondars7789 The Baltic states only switched from one overlord to the other, German, Swedish, Polish, Russian. In some sense, you can say that integration to the EU is just equal to once again restoring German overlordship.

@@MrKakibuy Are You from Baltics? If You now Baltic history then You would know that Baltic was independent for most of its history. Thous interventions You mentioned was mostly localised and started mostly after Northern crusades in 12 c, if not counting Slavic expansion in eastern and southern Baltic lands in previous centuries. Independent Lithuanian state continued to manage region for many centuries to come, interrupted for short time of Slavic rule. In short - if You compare all history of this region.

​@@artursbondars7789 I know the history of the region, and the southern regions you speak about belonged previously to Kievan Rus and were already settled by Slavs, they were only incorporated into the grand duchy of lithuania when they took advantage of the weak mongol empire and rising principality of moscow. So thats almost 800 hundred years of the Baltic being not indepdent. Thats not a short time at all. As for who ruled, what does it matter really? The Germans in WW2 also viewed the Baltics as no more than future colonization land.

I’m glad you liked it!

@@MadMacGeopolitics I would like to see more historical context on Lithuania, specially on Grand Duchy of Lithuania (it is very different from Latvia and Estonia). But I hope you'll do video about Lithuanian history. :)

tai kad ne :DDDDDDDDDDD

Thank You. I wish you all the best.

Basically Lithuanian vytis? :D

@@MJ-uk6luyes they’re identical

in Europe*

@@cepelinai thanks for the fix

np

I think they are just bad at learning new languages, the older folks. In Latvia we offer them language courses for free

You have fallen for my trap!!

According to 2021 census we have 4.2% of russians (not 4.5) and 5.5% of poles (not 7%). Be in present time, please.

@@arturasandriusaitis8832 Do you think Russia could invade Baltic states after Ukraine ?

@@geoffroyfalot3583 The end of muscovy is close.

"we have very little German “legacy” as we never been under German rule (except world wars)." But the impact was quite big. Look at Žemaitija and you see German buildings everywhere. It looks like almost another country.

Really? Jeans were invented in Latvia? -curious Estonian

@@Pibola64 invented BY a latvian, it only took off in america though

depends on how far in history you go, 500 years ago Lithuania was one of the strongest countries in the world.

They are economies that will see major recessions due to demographic issues

I’m really hopeful for the Baltic countries in general, they’re gonna be so much better off than their neighbors for that reason, and their smooth transition to the free market, etc.

Before February we thought the same about Ukraine and Russia's "very good chances for military success". Hows that working out? Don't devaluate a countries' desire and ability to stay independent. Even a small one's.

@@lauravilsone5554 big difference. ukraine has population of 40 millions. they have an actual and capable army, and weapons. What does baltic states have? Nothing. No army, no population, fully flat area, no TANKS, nowhere to retreat, no good economy.

wrong. already before 1991 there much less % russians in Lithuania - that is the reson they gave citizenship to everybody - because immigration did not change their demographics - not the other way around. In Estonia, end Especially Latvia many more russians settlede after WW@ - especially in Riga which was the headquartes of the Baltis military distric. That is the reaosn by Estonians and Latvians did not give citizenshiup automatically but only through naturalisation that inluded basic history and language tets (which many russians passed - but some failed or refused to take).

That’s all very well and good, but the Russian expansionists may not see it the same way. This is what I’m trying to highlight here, but I’m glad to hear that there is a sense of inter-ethnic unity within Latvia and the other Baltic states.

I've seen a couple of Russian-language news portals for Latvia and Estonia and I've been surprised how many of the comments were decidedly against Putin even while protesting the government's restrictions on Russophone schooling and cultural autonomy. It's easy to think of these people as some Volksrussiche of sorts, but they're really not.

Do you think Russia could invade Baltic states after Ukraine ?

@@geoffroyfalot3583 As a lithuanian I think no, because of NATO

@@artelislt Ok mate, thanks for your answer

Correct, the Germans and Swedes had the greatest presence before, but also Poland-Lithuania

​@@MadMacGeopolitics "but also" is an understatement. Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia were doing great in an union for half of millennia, and existed as separate countries way before that. But a series of expensive wars with Sweden, and stopping Ottoman advance into Austria, really weakened the country in 17th century. By 18th, it was too easily manipulable, especially since it was an elective monarchy with quite a lot of decentralization. Prussia, Austria and Russia just exploited the situation and annexed everything at around 1790-1795, with Lithuania going to the Russian empire. So in the end, at least when it comes to Lithuania, neither germans nor swedes really had any lasting power here, at any time. The very recent and rather short Russian-Soviet occupation was the biggest interruption to sovereignty. P.S. When it comes to Latvia and Estonia though, yes, Sweden had a lot of influence.

@@MadMacGeopolitics As an interesting fact- even during the time of Russian Empire Estonia and Latvia had German as official administrative language untill the 1890-s. (Meanwile Finlad- whitch had become "part of Russia" at the same time had Sweadish)

@Chris Jok The Kievan Rus' invasions had no asting impact and the Old Believers are a very small minority among the Russian minority in Estonia - the bulk of them still came here illegally during the illegal Soviet occupation. Don't argue against locals if you don't know what you are talking about...

@@eksiarvamus "the bulk of them still came here illegally during the illegal Soviet occupation" - still butthurt much for that one night in Lasnamäe?

I agree on that.

Это как раз о религиозном разделении. Потому что культура в средние века и даже новое время различались зависимости от религии, в случае Европы - в зависимости от формы христианства. Эстонцы - это ни разу не типичные восточные европейцы, культурно, исторически и даже поведением они те же финны или шведы. Эстонцы также, как и финны со скандинавами довольно open minded (не знаю, как на русском это сказать) толерантны, спокойны (очень явная черта северных европейцев). А от литовцев я очень много гневных и негативных комментариев видел, я никогда не видел, что эстонцы, будучи из культурно протестантского общества, позволяли бы себе столько ругательств в интернете, как те же исторически католики и православные - литовцы, поляки, русские, украинцы и тд по списку… Эстонцы не имеют восточноевропейской манеры ведения диалогов, ну есть, кончено, исключения, но я за большинство говорю.

@@bengadot You are not wrong, but religon is only one aspect of it. There is also a thing like national character/spirit. Practice showed that the countries that went Lutheran path, later, got disappointed with religion and faith. So there is a huge correlation between Lutheranism and "tolerance", secularism, and faithlessness. It's just when people stray away from God, they tryna fill the void by worshipping social justice, "cult of reason" or humanism. Finally, although eestiis are the least alike with other so-called Eastern Europeans, they still share much in common with them. I would probably not say that Ests are closer to Finns and/or Swedes fr

@@timurermolenko2013 сейчас религия не имеет никакого веса в национальной идентичности европейских народов. Но она их идентичности создала в прошлом. И почему эстонцы не ближе шведам? Они шведам раз в 10 ближе, чем литовцам. А современные лютеранские и др протестантские народы Европы стали такими удобными для жизни как раз из-за этой самой толерантности. Хоть я и считаю толерантность нужно проявлять к тем, кто понимает ее и принимает, а не как русскоязычные совки, которые хуже любого фашиста

@@bengadot Sadly, religion is dead in Europe. Just like "China" used to be a cultural concept of the center of the world in Asia, Many other countries claimed themselves as the True China. Same with Europe now - where America is more like what Europe used to be. Though I am concerned that tolerancy leads to fanaticism towards middle easterners and perverts, iykwim

Agreed. They must show utmost respect and loyalty to their country or leave. Cannot sit on two chairs with one ass.

no, they should not. People are free to speak whatever language they want, without being discriminated against

@@user-dx2sk4fe1k they can speak in their kitchens whatever they want. Хоть Aramaic. But in outside, they shouldn't expect native population to speak their russian. I think you can understand, since you're likely from Caucasus or Central Asia

@@timurermolenko2013 кто тебя заставляет? Здесь ты один других заставить хочешь

@@user-dx2sk4fe1k IM not arguing with ya. When you're a guest in someone's house, you gotta show proper respect

Finland was working together with free Estonia to stabilise government and Estonia since day 1 has worked towards all kinds of defence systems against insurgency and propoganda. By now huge parts of Estonian identity can be stored in cloud (gov systems etc), so even if they would end up anexed, you can't really disable Estonian government since it does not have phisical body anymore. Poland worked with Lithuania to stabilise and get back on feet. Latvia fumbled along with the help of early supporters like Island, Finland, etc Free Latvia government still comprised of many USSR time politicians (like ex-Mayor of Ventspils and few EU parlament chairs).

@@dfd6787 Don't write the nonsenses. Lithuania did everything itself, without any "stabilization" of Poland, rather the opposite. I see in your writings the Livonian knecht's mentality. Lithuanians don't have the freeloader's mentality.

@@arturasandriusaitis8832 No idea what you mean with "Livonian knecht". The info is max condensed/eli5/simplified, not really into lectures over YT comments. You can look it up if interested for details. But the gist of it - LT and PL had to work out their issues when USSR fell. PL was great supporter on LT joining EU, NATO etc.

@@dfd6787 Yes. Was great supporter of joining NATO, not EU. And nothing more.

@@Bolofex ok. Thanks. Can you explain why it's unstable?

Sure. andmebaas.stat.ee/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=RV0222U

@@MadMacGeopolitics Thank you! Great video!

Why does everyone keep thinking I shaded Crimea 100% with Russia’s flag? It’s 50% with Russia’s flag and 50% with Ukraine.

@@MadMacGeopolitics Mac, you did a mistake. Crimea was, is and will be Ukrainian.

@@arturasandriusaitis8832 aha I see what you mean

Well, come and get it then.

@@user-dx2sk4fe1k Everything has its own time.

There are no "hardships of integration" as you define it, because there is no integration process at all. In 1991 Latvian passports were given out based on the sole fact of individual's ethnicity group. Ethnic Latvians were gifted with citizenship, while representatives of other ethnic groups became "aliens" with hampered rights. Holder of "alien" passport is unable to work in government establishments, unable to cast his vote, unable to participate in the elections and so forth. You can't become even a district-level representative, despite building your district and living here throughout your life. Indeed it's hard to image the frustration and anger of all these 30% of population, where the society is divided based on the sole fact of your ethnicity. A curious fact , when two "aliens" born and raised in Latvia are having a child, their child is born as an "alien". On the other hand, an ethnic Latvian born and raised someplace else can get Latvian citizenship on the sole fact of him or her being ethnically Latvian. I can't even imagine a better starting point for building up a healthy society. But again, who am I to judge, right? After all, we've successfully claimed the title of EU bottom feeder and are still on decline in almost every category.

@@7hr3sh, on decline at every category? how about gdp growth being huge, handling covid really well compared to other countries, in lithuania imigration being 2x bigger than emigration, tourism growth by 60% in 1 year (if I recall correctly) just to name a few?

@@joinz8544 I suggest to look at inflation last month July (22%). Also population declined by 25%. So yes as he said in every category. Only fanatic patriots still ignoring it, screaming how well they are doing while population is fleeing from the country.

@@sleepyjoe7843, yes, because lithuania is the only country to have inflation. and population declined by 25% last month, are you mad? can you count? 25% of 2.8 million would be 700k, even in our peak population decline it didn't decline by 25% in one month.

@@sleepyjoe7843, you're the typical lithuanian cry baby who just sees things without trying to actually figure out the reasons for those things. more people are imigrating than emigrating, almost 2x more people come to live here than leave. our economic growth is if I'm not mistaken in the 3rd place in the entire eu, prices are increasing because russia was our biggest trading partner that we now cut off. if you want to have russia as our main trading partner you have 2 working braincells max. and when the population was decreasing the most that was because of ruzzians leaving our country and because a lot of young people now had the ability to travel, so while in reality if we had the ability to leave all along our population wouldn't have decreased so drastically. lithuania, latvia and estonia are doing the best out of all ex-soviet countries, our gdp per capita is 2x bigger than ruzzias and 5x bigger than ukraines, and 8k bigger (almost 2x) than the world's average. we're not doing that bad, stop crying about it, if you don't like it, you can leave.

As a Lithuanian, we were always close to Poland, but we still had our own way, and still doing it, we are Catholic/Pagan, Plus the baltics are more considered Northern then Eastern, so we have our own thing, hopefully i wrote that well :D

@@TheHierarchian I didn’t actually mean Lithuania is Eastern European, but Central European just like Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine (Halychyna, Volyń and Carpathian Ruthenia) For me Northern Europe is culturally and historically Protestant Lutheran (or Anglican) region.

@@bengadot Understood good man

Of course Estonia is culturally a Nordic country.

We all are the same WHG (Western Hunter Gatherers) people. :)

I didn’t even know it existed 😂

russia is what gain independence from them, those countries are far older than russia, they re part of the region where russians come from

@@jh5kl I meant USSR

Bulgaria gained their independence from Russia so.....

Bulgaria wasnt occupied as the Baltics, but i get what you mean