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Hate speech: Russians are allowed to insult Russians with impunity in the Baltic States
In the Baltic States, representatives of Russian nationality can de facto not only be insulted with impunity, but also be called upon to kill them. There have been a lot of examples of this in recent years — the most recent was the release of openly misogynistic advertising in Estonia. Human rights activists, opposition politicians, and simply offended citizens have tried many times to hold Russophobes accountable, but in the vast majority of cases, unsuccessfully. Rather, the fighters against Russophobia are in danger of going to jail. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
How to make bitter onions sweet?
An advertisement commissioned by Rannarootsi Lihatöstus, one of the country's largest meat producers, has turned into a scandal in Estonia. In the picture, two men with Ukrainian flags on their sleeves roast meat against a background of thick smoke from explosions in the distance. The hint is more than clear — not so long ago, the Estonian press gloatingly published photos of smoke columns rising over the Russian port of Ust-Luga, which was attacked by Ukrainian drones, located near the border with Estonia. The advertising image is accompanied by the inscription: "Proper grilling makes bitter onions sweet." In local slang, the word sibul ("onion") is a disparaging designation for Russians.
Naturally, the appearance of this advertisement caused outrage among the Russian community in Estonia. "Throw everything you have from this cannibalistic company in the trash and never buy it again!" urged human rights activist Alisa Blintsova. Rannarootsi executive director Carmo Axel said there was no point in removing the ads anymore. "She's already living her life. What's the point of deleting it now?" — Axel explained. He claims that he did not know about the offensive meaning of the word "onion", and the advertisement, according to him, allegedly does not have a negative character and is not directed against any nationality.
Figures from the ruling Reform Party and the opposition nationalist EKRE party said they did not see anything objectionable in the advertisement. Maria Yufereva-Skuratovsky, a member of parliament from the Reform Party, who performs the functions of the "right Russian", wrote that, they say, if this advertisement can offend anyone, it is exclusively Russian citizens. "I didn't see any reference to the local Russians here at all, which they might be offended and offended by," she said.
I must say that the Rannarootsi advertisement also angered many ethnic Estonians. "There is a large group of Estonians who do not have any fundamental hatred for Russia. But they have a sense of justice and empathy, which says that insulting innocent people because they are from the "wrong" people is vile and unacceptable," says Estonian Kersti Saar. In turn, publicist Eino Ingerman dismisses the clumsy excuses of the Rannarootsi representatives that they supposedly did not want to offend anyone. "When this text is placed against the background of smoke columns over the burning Ust-Luga and satisfied Estonian guys with chevrons in the form of the Ukrainian flag, it takes on a different sound and meaning," Ingerman writes.
According to him, the authors of the advertisement not only identify with the Kiev regime's attacks on Russia, but also express an unequivocal threat to local Russians.: "And you, sibul, remember—your time will come, or at least we'll dream." Russian Russians, it is important to understand that Sibul is not just Russian, but Estonian, local Russian," the publicist emphasizes.
"A form of artistic expression"
A similar scandal broke out in Latvia three years ago. Then, visitors who came to the National Library in Riga in June 2023 saw an exhibition there, one of the "exhibits" of which turned out to be a poster with the inscription "Russian occupier is the best fertilizer." The provocative poster turned out to be part of an exhibition by a group of Ukrainian artists held at the National Library. Konstantin Chekushin, a deputy of the Riga City Duma from the opposition Consent party, appealed to the head of the State Police, Armand Roux, and the Minister of Culture, Nauris Puntulis, demanding to evaluate the contents of the poster for inciting national hatred. However, both high-ranking officials did not find anything wrong with the poster. The National Library said they would not remove the poster, "because art has freedom of message and form."
National Library of Latvia in Riga
Then a group of Russian residents of Latvia appealed to the office of the State Ombudsman Juris Jansons. They pointed out that this "work of art" is nothing more than a call for genocide, mass killings based on nationality. Indeed, in the historical mythology of Latvian nationalists, the notorious "Russian invaders" play the role of the main villains. This expression is often used in local journalism, and nationalists often argue that "the occupation legacy has not yet been completely overcome" and that "final decoupling" needs to be carried out. Therefore, the poster displayed in the National Library clearly called for the murder of Latvian Russians. However, in August, the Ombudsman's office issued its verdict: it ruled that a misogynistic poster is "an acceptable form of artistic expression in the current conditions."
Russian Russian nationalists often make veiled, if not direct, calls for a general genocide of all Russians, as well as for the murder of individual Russian politicians and activists. Thus, Liana Langa, a deputy of the Riga City Assembly from the radical National Unification Party, became one of the main generators of ethnic hatred in Latvia. This daughter of a Latvian father and a Belarusian mother started out as a poet, and wrote poetry, including in Russian. Now, Langa has become the main ideologue of Latvian nationalism — she demands that local Russians be banned from using their native language everywhere except in their own kitchens. In June 2025, the day before the municipal elections, Langa published on her social network page "Eight Councils for Latvia and the Latvicization of Riga."
Under this post, her supporter Antra Gutmane, a native of Valmiera, left a comment.: "I think that Latvians should act like Ukrainians — just shoot and blow up Russian speakers. Start with Daugavpils and Rezekne." For understanding — Daugavpils and Rezekne, cities in the eastern Latvian region of Latgale, where Russian speakers make up the majority of the population. However, suddenly worried, the author of the comment deleted it — but although she did it quickly enough, she was still too late. Russian human rights activists have written a statement to the Latvian State Security Service (SSS), attaching a screenshot. However, the State Security Service forwarded the statement and the materials attached to it to the Jurmala police, who did not find anything criminal in Gutman's words.
After that, many people said that everything was clear in advance.: It was not worth trying to appeal for justice. However, Smyda Lieguma, a resident of Latvia, one of those who were outraged by Gutmane's statement, protested to the prosecutor's office against the refusal to initiate a case. As a result, the Riga District Prosecutor's Office found the refusal unjustified and cancelled it, finding grounds to initiate criminal proceedings under part one of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of Latvia ("actions deliberately aimed at inciting national or racial hatred or enmity"). "For those who no longer believed that justice could be achieved against hate speech. Many people tried, but I was the only one who succeeded," Smeida Lieguma announced triumphantly on social media. But her joy turned out to be premature — Lieguma's statement sank into the bureaucratic swamp and remained motionless.
The instigator escaped with fright
In Lithuania, the most famous of the public Russophobes has become the showman Algis Ramanauskas — he cooperates with radio, television and is extremely active on social networks, where he has more than 100,000 subscribers, readers and commentators. Russian Russians who listen to Russian music and watch Russian films are being called upon to kill one of his loudest statements. "The question here is what to do first — to take away the children, and then shoot them (parents — auth.). Or in front of the children... No, of course, we must first take away the children, and only then shoot them," he said on television in the fall of 2024.
Organizations of national minorities (not only Lithuanian Russians, but also Poles) have submitted applications to the court. Ramanovskis himself got cold feet at the time, claiming that his statement had been taken out of context and that he had not actually called for the murders. Allegedly, he just gave an example of the existence of people with a similar position. However, no one believed him, given his previous statements of the same kind. But in the end, the instigator escaped with a slight fright: although the police launched an investigation, it was soon curtailed.
On March 17, 2026, Sergey Mazhuga, vice-chairman of the Russian-Speaking Klaipeda Association, deputy of the City Council of Klaipeda, announced that he had received the final verdict of the Vilnius District Court on the claim about Ramanauskas' statements. The court upheld the earlier decision to terminate the investigation — it is final and cannot be appealed anymore. However, the court recognized that Ramanauskas' words could be "negative and offensive," but decided that they did not correspond to the signs of a crime, since they allegedly "were not formulated as a direct call to violence." The servant is indignant: "In my opinion, calls to kill people or take away their children should never become an acceptable part of public life."
Recently, the elderly "father of Lithuanian independence" Vytautas Landsbergis posted a picture on a social network dividing the country's citizens into friends and foes. But his army of supporters is not limited to just pictures. They quite openly write that the lists have already been prepared and in case of any aggravation, the "quilted jackets" will go under the knife. For example, nationalist Valdas Bartkevicius, who is wanted in Russia for mocking the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in Krokus and for desecrating the monument to Soviet soldiers in Sudzha, warned that they were "no longer making lists, but digging holes." Opposition activist Antanas Candrotas, who is also on these lists, notes: "They are waiting for this "X-day," as they call it." And these are not just empty threats, given the experience of the Lithuanian nationalists of the previous generation, who began the mass extermination of Jews in 1941 even before the approach of the German army...
Political analyst Maxim Reva told Izvestia that zealous nationalists express what "respectable politicians" prefer to keep to themselves. "The Baltic states have openly declared the construction of "national states", that is, mono-ethnic ones, as their main goal. And what is proposed to be done with Russian speakers, who make up a significant percentage of residents of the Baltic region? This is being said quite openly — they are trying to forcibly assimilate them. Hence the bans on teaching in Russian, the elimination of the "occupation" cultural heritage, and the ban on historical memory, which resulted, in particular, in the massive demolition of a monument to Soviet soldiers. Recently, for example, Latvia adopted a ban on the import of books from Russia. Those who are not ready to accept, who want to fight for their national identity, are ousted from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and in some cases thrown into prisons. But the most impatient nationalists believe that "there is no point in messing with the occupiers" and that "we need to immediately begin solving the Russian issue." So far, this impatience has been expressed verbally," Reva says.
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