TERRITORIAL ISSUES IN RELATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION WITH THE STATES OF THE BALTIC REGION AT THE PRESENT STAGE

Abstract

The issues of territorial disputes between the Russian Federation (RF) and the states of the Baltic region (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) that preceded the signing of interstate treaties on borders after the collapse of the USSR are reviewed. The historical, political, ethnic and economic factors of solving these issues and the formation of borders between the Russian Federation and the states of the Baltic region, starting from 1920, during the Second World War, in the first postwar years and until now, are analyzed. Special focus is made on the status of the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation (former East Prussia) in the context of the national interest of Poland and Lithuania (Lithuania Minor). It is claimed that there are currently no territorial problems in the relations of the Baltic states with the Russian Federation in the political and legal sense. However, the very aggressive policy of the Kremlin, especially as a result of the armed intervention against Ukraine, is able to activate them and cause a revision of the borders in the event of a possible expansion of the conflict into this region and the participation of NATO in it.