Why Putin won’t attempt to ‘integrate’ Estonia and Latvia into the Russian Federation

Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, there were fears that Estonia and Latvia could be dragged into a similar crisis due to the large numbers of ethnic Russians living in each state. But as Michele E. Commercio highlighted in this article, the unique history of Estonia and Latvia had produced a very different situation to that in Ukraine, with both states now hosting a new generation of integrated, bilingual ethnic Russians who were content with their lives in Estonia and Latvia. Any attempt to integrate parts of Estonia or Latvia into the Russian Federation would likely face fierce resistance from ethnic Russians on the ground as well as from NATO forces.

• Primary Source

Wikipedia: Russians in the Baltic states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_the_Baltic_states

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