121

On March 27-28, the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad held an International Scientific and Practical Conference “The Status of Russian Compatriots in the Baltic Region Countries 2025” at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad. More than 90 experts, politicians and public figures from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany took part in the Conference.

On March 28, 2025, at the plenary session “Country Aspects of Protecting the Rights of Compatriots in the Baltic Region: Practical Dimension” employees of the Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group of the Center for Strategic Planning Studies of IMEMO spoke.

• o    Dmitriy Ofitserov-Belsky, Head of the Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group of IMEMO, noted that the national policy of the Baltic countries directly correlates with the growing demographic crisis and the need for labor resources. Thus, their governments are rapidly moving from a policy of soft segregation to a policy of forced integration of Russian speakers, both those who have long lived in the region and migrants from Ukraine. As much as possible is being done to erase identity in a short period of time. The current conflict between Russia and the West, according to Ofitserov-Belsky, gives the Baltic governments an indulgence for any violation of the rights of Russian speakers, if this is necessary to erase Russian identity.
• o    Igor Zhukovsky, Senior Researcher of the Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group of IMEMO, in his presentation drew attention to the scale of change in the socio-cultural landscape in Poland due to the migration crisis provoked by the transition of the Ukrainian conflict into a hot phase. In a few years, since February 2022, several million citizens of Ukraine, LPR and DPR have passed through Poland, forced to flee the zone of intense hostilities. Studies of Ukrainian migrants and refugees remaining in Poland show that they are predominantly Russian-speaking and have no prospects for leaving Poland in their medium-term strategies. It is necessary to study the social dynamics and political-economic features of the situation of this new group of the Russian-speaking population in Poland, which – in fact – has absorbed with its scale the traditional Russian-speaking communities and communities of Russian-speaking migrants and Russian compatriots in Poland.