*** OTOH, the Baltics prosperity proved to be short-living. Once a Soviet Union's industrial powerhouses, much of these industry was dismantled and sold off in TheNineties, on pretext of being obsolete and non-competitive, leaving the economy to rely on service sector and trade — the Baltic ports were the important transit link in Europe-Russia trade. Once the Great Recession struck, the service sector collapsed almost immediately, with the massive unemployment and financial black holes. Even in the more well-off Estonia there were the street riots.
*** Though it would be important to note that, despite all the economic troubles that were brought about by their less than successful shift to capitalism, almost no one in the Baltics would say that they miss communism. Same goes for most of the former Soviet Republics and any other place that the Russians directly occupied.
**** This, to a large extent, is due to the strength of a particularly virulent strain of race-based nationalism in the Baltic states (where collaboration with the occupying Nazis against the Russians and Jews was common, especially in Latvia).

14th Mar '13 10:53:59 PM Nohbody

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11th Mar '13 9:37:30 PM DesignatedNPC

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10th Mar '13 4:34:18 AM NoxSky12599

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