Analytics, Baltic States – CIS, Direct Speech, EU – Baltic States, Russia

"You have a better sense of what is happening here in Russia. You have a better understanding of us (..) - Soviet sources, stereotypes, borders, formulations. You can tell Europe, America, NATO, or the European Union about Russia's problems. Your experience is priceless," the political scientist told LRT television channel.

The expert said that there are people in the United States and Europe, who are telling Eastern Europeans to "better keep quiet. We do not care about your problems, we will not go against Vladimir Putin and Russia". "However, Germans are less likely to say this now, as they have begun searching for their own truth, a new policy in regard to Russia," Shevtsova admitted.

She reminded that a lot of people in Russia tend to blame the West for the chaos and destruction of their hopes of the past century.

"I believe that the West can be blamed only for the illusions and hopes in regard to Boris Yeltsin, who clearly turned to an authoritarian regime in 1993, and passed a constitution which granted him more authority. Meanwhile, Western leaders - Bill Clinton, Helmut Kohl, and others - kept on believing that Russia was moving towards democracy. The West is to be blamed for these illusions, which caused beneficial conditions for Russia's corruption system. Whereas, we are to be blamed for all the rest - for everything that the intelligentsia, liberal minority, new generation, and responsibility for the nation failed to achieve," she stressed.