Baltic State Crisis

By Hunter Michel

In September of 2022, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland announced a ban on Russian tourists from entering their countries. However, this was probably not the right move for the countries’ economies and social efforts. All four countries announced that this ban on Russian tourists would begin on September 19. They all stated that the ban was important to their own national security. This was accomplished by statements by leaders of the countries including but not limited to Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister, Urmas Reinsalu, the Estonian foreign affairs minister, and Krišjānis Kariņš, the Latvian prime minister.

Because of these acts of Russian aggression, most European countries have had their relations with Russia get much worse in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian response to this has been to bite back at Europe with policies such as restricting Russian oil entering Europe. Although these countries have a reason to fear Russia and all of them have had a very poor relationship with Russia throughout history, in my opinion these countries are making a misguided decision. They are making a common mistake that many people can make relating to many different countries, which is that they are equating the Russian people with the Russian government. Although the Russian government is making one hostile decision after another following their invasion of Ukraine, the Russian people have in many cases seen their quality of life significantly reduce after Putin came to power a second time in 2012, and although the Russian government has attempted to keep public support for the war, the reality is that a large amount of Russians do not support their government or the war in Ukraine at all, and many of them may be visiting other nations to escape their increasingly authoritarian government.

By banning Russian tourists, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are not doing anything to stop the greater problem of Putin’s government and are only hurting ordinary citizens. A Russian citizen who is extremely pro-war and heavily supports Putin would likely never want to visit the historically anti-Russian Baltic countries, and so this new law likely only serves to hurt those who pose no real threat to the safety of anyone in the Baltic countries or the rest of Europe.