After the hysterical reaction of the Russian pseudo patriotic audience to the statements of the Georgian actor Vakhtang Kikabidze and the greeting of the Croatian football players, the Ukrainian friends came the turn of the Latvian pop singer Laima Vaikule. The actress collapsed after her words that she would not go to any annexed Crimea for any fees and did not regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, "Vitaly Portnikov writes in a column on" Radio Liberty ".

Laima Vaikule did not say anything special. She insists that she did not make political statements - and this is really true. Vaikule is a citizen of a member state of the European Union who imposed sanctions after the occupation of the Crimea. Law-abiding citizens of the EU should beware of activities on the territory annexed by the Kremlin. The singer simply stated this fact. Therefore, the indignation of her critics who "do not understand," why Vaikule is ready to sing in "other regions of Russia", but not in the Crimea - the usual cynicism. Crimea is not a Russian region, it is a territory annexed in violation of international law. And no other status of the Crimea - until his return to Ukraine - will not be. As Russian President Vladimir Putin likes to say, this issue is closed.

Vaykule's statement about possible tours in the Crimea and attitude towards the collapse of the USSR could not but be affected by personal experience. The singer was born and grew up in Latvia. In Soviet times, the attitude of the inhabitants of this country to the occupation was totally negative - and not only in dissident circles. The proof is almost unanimous support for the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Latvia by Latvians and a large part of the population resettled in Latvia after the occupation.

For Laima Vaikule - as for most of the inhabitants of Latvia - the collapse of the USSR became at the same time a release from the hated occupation, and a just retribution for repression and humiliation. It's not politics at all. That's life. And, by the way, in the 90s many Russians shared the attitude of the peoples of the Baltic countries to the occupation and the USSR - in Moscow and other cities of Russia there were many thousands of demonstrations in support of the liberties of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It was the state structures of the Russian Federation that first recognized the fact of the occupation of the Baltic countries by the Stalinist regime. What has changed?.

Changed the attitude towards truth. Creeping Stalinization began in Russia long before the annexation of the Crimea, but after 2014 it intensified. Of course, it is not customary to talk about the occupation of the Baltic countries in modern Russia.

And the fact that residents of these countries can perceive reality differently than Russian television, many Russians do not understand.

Laima Vaikule, unlike her Russian critics, has lived all these years in reality. In a free European country where one does not need to lie and pretend, whose citizens are allergic to lies and occupation. And this is not politics at all. It's oxygen, which Russians simply do not have.

Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Join also the TSN group. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.