*Yike.
By KALINA OROSCHAKOFF
with ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH
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HISTORY DEPARTMENT: Today marks 80 years since the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that carved up Eastern Europe.
Dark days: In a joint statement to be released later today, previewed by Playbook, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania will say the pact “doomed half of Europe to decades of misery … we remember all those whose deaths and broken lives were a consequence of the crimes perpetrated under the ideology of Nazism and Stalinism.” The countries will call on European governments “to provide both moral and material support to the ongoing historical investigation of the totalitarian regimes.”
Not us: Russia in a series of tweets rejected any responsibility for starting the war: “Contrary to allegations that the agreement between Stalin and Hitler triggered WWII, in fact the USSR was practically the last geopolitical actor forced to sign an agreement with the Nazi Germany.”
Happier Baltic memories: The Baltic states are also celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way — a “unique human chain of 2 million people across Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to manifest their will to break free from the Soviet Union … and all without the internet and before the smart-phone era,” as one reader from the region described it to Playbook. The movement lives on in Asia — demonstrating Hong Kongers today are expected to form a human chain inspired by the Baltic Way.
Taste of freedom: Marking today’s Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, Věra Jourová, the Czech European commissioner in charge of justice and consumer affairs, told Playbook she remembers her “life under Communist times, hiding to listen to forbidden radio programs such as Radio Free Europe or Voice of America … people could not live their lives and think and speak their minds freely. Thirty years later, I’m glad that my country and the whole region has joined the EU, where democratic values, equality and freedoms are a reality to all.”
GOOD MORNING, and with the past in mind, welcome to a brand new day. I’m climate reporter Kalina Oroschakoff. Over the past four years on my beat for POLITICO, I’ve watched climate politics move from the fringes of international relations to center stage....
