Perhaps Tomas could explain to us in logical terms why it is quite all right for no Russian leader to have ever made a commitment to do all they can to ensure that the horror of totalitarian rule will never again descend on the Russian people. Perhaps he can also explain why it is entirely appropriate for no Russian leader to have ever expressed the least regret, let alone offered expressions of condolence to the people of the Baltics for the mass atrocities which Russians, under the Soviet flag, commenced inflicting on the Baltics from June 1941 (before Russia was at war with Germany and at a rime when the Baltics were neutral), and which continued in one form or another all the way until 1991, when Lithuanians were crushed under Soviet tanks in their own capital. June 14 is the annual day of mourning in the Baltics – that day in 1941 saw the commencement of mass deportations of innocent men, women and children to Siberian slavery. In that one 24-hour period, approximately 10,000 Estonians were torn from their homes, and more than that number each from Latvia and Lithuania. Eventually the combined Soviet toll in the Baltics reached hundreds of thousands of individuals, a colossal figure in view the Baltics’ small population. National leaders from around the world always send messages of condolence to the Baltic countries on this day of mourning; why not Russia, their nearest neighbour, and the home of those who actually committed the crimes? And one more question for Tomas. Germany has prosecuted its war criminals; why has Russia not brought even one single, solitary person to trial who committed crimes against humanity in the name of the Soviet state? Why has it never even investigated one? Are there not tens of millions of dead in Russia, killed by the Soviet state, and are there not many, many more millions who were enslaved in the GULAG by Russians serving the Soviet state? Russians’ complicity in the crimes of its Soviet era will continue to hang as an albatross around Russia’s neck, hindering its foreign policy, poisoning its relations with its neighbours and preventing closure and healing from happening within Russia itself, until Russia brings appropriate and decent closure to its Soviet-era crimes. Angry bluster such as Tomas’ post offers does nothing to remedy anything.

Americans love to manipulate, bully small nations, menace, make wars, establish dictatorships. So... the Sixth Fleet , here it is in Thessaloniki and other ports of Greece. After years.. why today? Tommorow is election day. We choose European parlement members and the presense of the Sixth Fleet is meant to discourage votting in favor of the party that courrently developes good relations with Russia.