{"id":22923,"date":"2025-02-20T20:52:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=22923"},"modified":"2025-02-20T20:52:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:52:41","slug":"estonia-latvia-lithuania-eu-members-or-are-they-used","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=22923","title":{"rendered":"Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania: EU Members or Are They Used?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Three countries of the former Soviet Union, relatively similar to each other. They have almost the same size and population [between 1.5 and 2 million], have about the same GDP as Lithuania first and Estonia third, have the euro currency, the two border each other and all three with Russia. They joined the EU in 2004 and are members of NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First of all, we must note that the economic specific weight of these countries is negligible. It was not at all an incentive for the EU to accept them as members. They also do not have a significant labor force since all three barely reach 5 million. So the attraction that led to their accession to the EU was their border relationship with Russia. That is why such countries, so particularly weak militarily, joined NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The peoples were understandably deceived. Suffering from the failed Soviet model, they accepted what the \u201cshining\u201d West gave them and were happy. But their leaders should not be gullible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After twenty years in the \u201cEuropean living rooms\u201d, their lives have not changed much. In recent years, with the Ukrainian issue, some political stars of the region have found an opportunity to caress their narcissism and make a few pennies [see Kaia Callas].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU uses these countries as a cushion against possible Russian aggression, but the NATO emblem embroidered on the cushion will not make the Russian blow any softer for these peoples. It is also using them as an economic battering ram against the gates of the Russian economy, although this is the first time in history that toothpicks have been used to breach castle gates\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest trap that the EU has thrown these three countries into is cutting them off from the Russian energy grid. Something that was advertised almost as a revolution against the \u201creds\u201d and the restoration of the Romanovs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But propaganda alone is not enough. Reality is harsh and unforgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Six days after being cut off from the Russian grid, the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) set a new record for electricity prices: 269 euros per MWh \u2013 333% over a week (from 62 euros). Last year at this time it was 85 euros.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-158.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22925\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-158.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-158-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/image-158-768x407.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sensitive per capita income of these small countries is about to suffer a very strong blow. Unique for the last few decades. Something that will remind them of Soviet-style poverty\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU is not interested. Just as it sacrifices thousands of Ukrainians every day in a war of fury and dishonor, it will also melt the economic dreams of three of its members, with the hopeless wish of hurting Russia. Russia that will have no difficulty at all in replenishing the energy consumption of approximately 5 million customers. Perhaps it will simply increase its tariff by 0.005%\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, it is simple. Yes, the European Union is governed by straw men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. Three countries of the former Soviet Union, relatively similar to each other. They have almost the same size and population [between&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,390],"tags":[1855,2391,3519,25,3518,3520,4636],"class_list":["post-22923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-estonia","tag-eu","tag-latvia","tag-lithuania","tag-price-electricity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22926,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22923\/revisions\/22926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}