Baltic States – CIS, Financial Services, Legislation, Pensioners

The respective decree, signed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on December 3, has been placed on the government's website.

The document was prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, following Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 8 order.

The list of beneficiaries will be compiled by Russia's Foreign Ministry who will also regularly update the list every six months by eliminating those veterans who have passed away.

The funds will be allocated from the pension fund of the federal budget. The pay-out will be converted to the respective country's currency based on the ruble exchange rate.

The idea was first introduced by Putin in 2013. The preamble of the project says that "veterans of the Great Patriotic War who live in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, have limited rights in several aspects of their lives. The political elite of these countries refer to the protectors of the fatherland as "occupants", who are often accused of various crimes. All this takes place behind the Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn policy to glorify former "SS" soldiers, as well as the local Nazi supporters who benefit from state subsidies."

Latvia's Foreign Ministry criticized the announcement, indicating that the said statements depict a unilateral and subjective assessment about the consequences of War War II in the Baltic States, as well as facilitates a false notion about these countries.

There are about 12,000 veterans of the Great Patriotic War currently living in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.