All three Baltic states deny Moscow's allegations.

Journalists from LRT, Delfi and Re:Baltica found that since launching its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Moscow has steadily laid the groundwork for a discrimination case against the Baltic states over the alleged mistreatment of Russian speakers and ethnic Russians.

Since then, a series of complaints have been made by Russia against all three countries, with Moscow pushing for negotiations to resolve them before turning to the court. Estonia responded by proposing talks in Tartu or The Hague instead.

If Russia files a lawsuit, it is also not clear whether it will be against all three Baltic states at once or whether we will be taken to task one by one, Delfi wrote.

"We deal with problems in the order they arise," said Kerli Veski, undersecretary for legal and consular affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We don't have sleepless nights."

Latvia and Estonia have estimated that such litigation could occupy diplomats for years and become the most expensive legal proceedings in their history.

Read the full investigation here in English or here in Estonian or here in Latvian.

Latvia's public broadcaster LSM summed up the intent behind the case, writing: "The intention appears to be to cause as much inconvenience as possible and air Russia's solipsistic grievances in an international forum in the hope that any weak-minded onlookers might forget that it continues to commit atrocity after atrocity in Ukraine and actually believe that it gives a fig about international law and accountability."

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