Lithuania: Russia offered Baltics cheaper gas for NATO exit, says president

(baltictimes)- Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite says that Russia, in an effort to maintain influence over territories that were once part of the Soviet Union, has set out to make the Baltic states “unreliable partners” for NATO and the European Union.

In an interview with Germany’s Focus magazine, Dalia Grybauskaite said that according to her sources, there have been Russian offers to reduce oil and gas prices for Estonia and Latvia, if they were to terminate their NATO membership.

According to Grybauskaite, the offer was part of a broader effort by Moscow to discredit the Baltic states as tensions between Russia and the West escalate over Ukraine, Voice of America reports.

In the interview, Grybauskaite compared Russian president Vladimir Putin with the Soviet Union’s Joseph Stalin and Germany’s Adolf Hitler.

“[Putin] plays the nationality card as a pretext for military conquest,” said Grybauskaite, adding that " this is exactly what Stalin and Hitler did. Such comparisons are right on the mark.”

Not only Ukraine, but also the Baltic states and Poland have been victims of Russian aggression, she said.