BALTIC STATES:

Kaliningrad is Russian territory bordered on three sides by Lithuania and on the fourth by the Baltic Sea. It is the base for the once proud Russian Baltic fleet, now humbled by years of neglect and underfunding. Since the August crash in Russia, the capital city of Kaliningrad and the fleet’s home port of Baltiisk have appealed to Lithuania and Latvia for food and other assistance. Last week the chairman of Kaliningrad’s legislature cautioned that Russia’s inability to provide for the territory “weakens the population’s bonds to the center” and gives “our European neighbors”–the Baltic states and Germany–a chance “to increase their political and economic influence.” The legislature in a resolution addressed to the Russian Federation warned that “popular discontent may reach a level that would seriously undermine Russia’s sovereignty.”