100 Statement of Rolandas Krisciunas, Ambassador
of the Republic of Lithuania,
Russian Poli-cies & Intentions Toward Specific European Countries, Hearing before the US. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Marat. The Constitution Protection Bureau of the Republic of Latvia,
Annual Public Report 2016, at 1 (Mar. 2017). The Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) is one of three state security institutions of the Republic of Latvia, and is responsible for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence.
Ibid. 560
State Security Department and Ministry of
National Defense of Lithuania,
National Secu-rity Threat Assessment 2017, at 2.
561
Eriks Selga & Benjamin Rasmussen. Defending the West from Russian Disinformation The Role of Leadership Foreign Policy Research Institute, Nov. 13, 2017 Steven Lee Myers, Russia Rebukes Estonia for Moving Soviet Statue
The New York Times, Apr. 27, 2007. Statement of Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Former President of Estonia,
The Modus Operandi and Toolbox of Russia and Other Autocracies for Undermining Democracies Throughout the World, Hearing before the US. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, Marat. BALTIC STATES LATVIA, LITHUANIA, AND ESTONIA
The Russian government has sought to influence the Baltic countries through military intimidation, energy dependence,
trade relations, business links, cultural ties, corruption, disinformation, and cyberattacks. As in Ukraine, the Kremlin has used the Baltics as a laboratory for its malign influence activities, especially in deploying hackers to engage in cyberwarfare. Because
of their relatively small size, large Russian-speaking populations in Latvia and Estonia, and geographic proximity to Russia, the Baltic countries are subject to more intensive pressure from the Kremlin than other EU countries. Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States testified to the US. Senate that, in addition to aggressive intelligence operations and cyberattacks on members of parliament, the Kremlin has also used supply of energy resources, investment in strategically important sectors of economy and trade relations as a tool to influence domestic and foreign policy of Lithuania.’’
558
Latvia’s head intelligence agency has said that Russia is responsible for the most significant security threats in the Baltic sea region,’’
559
and Lithuania’s government has called Russia a major source of threats posed to the national security of the Republic of Lithuania.’’
560
In
addition, all three presidents of the Baltic states have also taken strong and public positions against the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns and supported building resiliency against them.
561
The Kremlin has long used the Baltic states as a testing ground for its asymmetric arsenal. One infamous incident occurred on a morning in late April 2007, when the government of Estonia decided to move a six-and-a-half-foot statue of a Soviet soldier out of the center of its capital, Tallinn, to another part of town. Removing the statue, placed there during Soviet occupation in 1947, was a controversial act—protests by ethnic Russians and violence the night before had damaged property, injured dozens, and left one person dead. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, called the move blasphemous Other Russian officials declared that removing the
statue was glorifying Nazism, and both the Duma and the Federation Council called on Putin to sanction Estonia or cutoff bilateral relations.
562
What happened next was described by Estonia’s then-president,
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, as the first time a nation-state had been targeted using digital means for political objectives.’’
563
The Inter-
VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018
Jkt PO 00000
Frm 00106
Fmt 6601
Sfmt 6601
S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT
FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER
101 Evan Osnos et al., Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War
The New Yorker, Mar. 6, 2016.
565
Share with your friends: