Photo Gallery The Baltic Question
Many Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians see their countries as the front in a new East-West conflict brewing between Europe and the United States on one side and Russia on the other. In the city of Narva, Estonia, ninety-five percent of the population speaks Russian. A 400-meter-long bridge connects the city to Putin's empire. Across from it, on the Russian side, is the old czarist fortress of Ivangorad.
As a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's meddling in the Ukraine crisis, the Baltic states recently requested beefed up support from their NATO allies. Here, NATO troops participate in sea exercises in Poland aimed at reassuring allies in the Baltic region in the face of a resurgent Russia.
Kari Raik is the director of a college in Narva that aims to provide local education in Estonia to the country's Russian minority. Many of her students, she says, head to Scandinavia to teach languages after graduation rather than Russia. She believes the region's Russian minority is firmly rooted in the West.
