Joint Baltic Claim Against Moscow

On Tuesday, Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar's Pro Patria party said it would propose to the Baltic Assembly interparliamentary body later this year that the three countries make a coordinated effort to claim compensation. Pro Patria's proposal includes asking Russia to acknowledge the Soviet occupation, she added. So far only Lithuania has taken concrete action aimed at achieving compensation. Its parliament approved a law in June obliging the government to bill Russia for the occupation, in a claim that could run into the billions of dollars. Baltic leaders in the past have said they thought Russia was unlikely ever to make any compensation. Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said in June that her country should make a list and publish a book of the damages done during the occupation as a historical record, even though the prospects of receiving compensation were slim. "Russia has not acknowledged the occupation of Latvia, that's why it is doubtful that it would acknowledge the damages," Vike-Freiberga was quoted as saying in June in the newspaper Diena.