DISINFO: A new wave of migration from the Baltic states will follow after the pandemic
SUMMARY
When pandemic will be over and EU borders will be open, in the Baltic States will be the same situation as 2008-2009 when hundreds of thousands of people left Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. These states lost 1/10 people of working age in a span of a few months. Now, there have been no special measures to support the small and medium-size business. The Baltic states have nor money, nor willingness to do it.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about abandoned and disappearing Baltic States.
The challenge of economical migration is topical for the Baltic states but in this message it hyperbolized. The migration temporarily increased after the 2008-2009 economic crisis, but it was not so dramatically huge. The statistical figures about migration in the Baltic states could be found in the book “The Politics of Economic Sustainability: Baltic and Visegrad Responses to the European Economic Crisis” (2014, edited by Karlis Bukovskis). The data shows that in Lithuania emigration increased from 2009 (in 2008 - 26.800, in 2009 - 40.400, in 2010 - 83.200) and began to decrease in 2011. In Estonian case, “in the 2007-2012 period the average net migration from Estonia was 7,000 people per year, which means there has been a loss of 0.75% of the population every year”. In Latvia emigration increased from 2009 (in 2008 - 27.000, in 2009 - 38.000, in 2010 - 39.000) and began to decrease in 2011 quite similarly as in Lithuania.
The Baltic states support the small and medium-size business. I.e., in December 2020 Lithuanian government confirmed new €150 billion subsidies for businesses in the context of Covid-19 pandemic. For the Baltic states, European measures to mitigate the effects of the pandemic are also important. In summer of 2020, EU leaders agreed on a €750 billion recovery effort, "Next Generation EU", to help the EU tackle the crisis caused by the pandemic.
See other examples of disinformation about "weakness" of the economics of the Baltic states in the message that The Baltic countries live mainly at the expense of the EU budget.