Baltics 'should move on from war' (BBC News)

(Yeah, Get Over it, and by the way "Remember The Alamo!)

Baltics 'should move on from war'

President George Bush says the US will never forget the suffering of the Baltic states under Soviet occupation, but has appealed for reconciliation.

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(The Secret Service really needs to work on a better "body double" for Pickles.)

Saturday, 7 May, 2005, 13:18 GMT 14:18 UK

He was referring to their dispute with Russia over their annexation by the Soviet Union after World War II. He met the Baltic leaders in Latvia at the start of his tour to mark 60 years since the end of WWII in Europe. Russia has protested against Mr Bush's visit there ahead of his trip to Moscow to attend major commemorations.

The Baltic states have been pressing Russia - successor to the Soviet Union - for a new apology over their loss of independence. Mr Bush supports the demands of his Nato allies, who are also European Union members. But Moscow has refused. Russia sees itself as the main power which helped bring freedom to Europe, defeating the Nazis at an enormous human cost - 30 million Soviet lives were lost.

Democratic neighbours

Mr Bush met Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, and their Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts Arnold Ruutel and Valdas Adamkus in the Latvian capital, Riga. "I recognise that in the West the end of World War II meant peace but in the Baltics it brought occupation and communist oppression," Mr Bush told reporters at a joint news conference after the talks.

He said he understood Baltic anger and frustration about what took place - as did Russia's President Vladimir Putin. "My hope is that we will be able to move on past that phase of history," Mr Bush said. "I will continue to speak as clearly as I can to President Putin that it is in his country's interest that there be democracies on his borders," the American leader said.

(more at link above)

He doesn't understand a damned thing about what they went through.