The coronavirus pandemic has not hit the Baltic States as hard as it could. Nevertheless, the countries have secured themselves from the economic crisis through Russophobic policies.
Today Lithuania is among the top three European Union countries in terms of unemployment rate with 9.6%. It is ahead of Italy and Spain, which have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts believe that the problems on the Lithuanian labour market are related to the fact that the authorities have provided state support to people during the crisis. This explanation is questionable, given that it is a one-off payment of 200 euros.
“The expert community believes that people have become accustomed to this way of life over generations. Reckless payments lead to discrimination against responsible workers, who work tirelessly, look for work and raise children”, – says Lithuanian MP Algirdas Sisas.
Only Lithuania’s problems are not at all about the government’s excessive “generosity”. For years, the republic, along with neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, has had a low unemployment rate due to the fact that a large proportion of its citizens have gone to work in Western European countries. The situation changed when countries were closed down for quarantine.
In addition, the economic situation in the Baltics was negatively affected by the loss of Russian transit. As a result, by the end of the year the Latvian Railway will have laid off a quarter of its employees. The situation is similar for the Estonian shipping company Tallink and the Latvian airline airBaltic.
Ports in the Baltic States have also been affected. They have already lost cooperation with Russia, which has begun developing its own sea ports. The situation was aggravated by the desire of the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to overthrow Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. These countries were the first in the world to introduce sanctions against Belarus. In response, Minsk has announced the reorientation of cargo traffic to Russian ports and is already negotiating accordingly.