Baltic States – CIS, Financial Services, History, Latvia, Legislation, Russia

Two lawmakers of the Russian Communist Party have asked the Russian Foreign and Justice Ministries to prepare a counter-claim to the Baltic States.

The Russian lawmakers said that Estonia and Livonia, a historic region in the present territory of Latvia and Estonia, had become the property of Russia in line with the Treaty of Nystad signed between Russia and Sweden in 1721 after the Great Northern War. Russia paid two million silver thalers to Sweden in compensation for Livonia. In 1795 the Duke of Courland sold the Duchy of Courland to Russia for 1.4 million thalers. The Russian lawmakers have estimated that the respective sums in terms of contemporary currency would amount to USD 100 billion and USD 30 billion respectively, and should be enforced from Tallinn and Riga.

During an international conference in Riga on November 5, the justice ministers of the three Baltic States signed a joint declaration about the need to calculate the damages from the Soviet occupation and to seek compensation from the Russian Federation as the successor of the USSR.