WHAT COULD THIS KISS MEAN?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Donald Trump are kissing on the side of a barbecue restaurant in Vilnius, Lithuania. Local artist, Mindaugas Bonanu painted the mural before the US election last year. It highlights the fears held by the Baltic States, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia as Putin flexes his muscles under an admiring Trump. In October last year, Britain sent tanks, drones and 800 troops to Estonia as part of the biggest military build-up on Russia's borders since the Cold War.
The Baltic States know what it’s like to be under Russian rule. Latvia was the last to shake off the harsh control of the Russian communists in 1990.
Peter Jirgens knows what it’s like too, because he slipped unobtrusively into Latvia in 1980 in a brave attempt to find his family. He tasted the poverty and fear of the Latvian people as they fought to live under a regime of terror. Peter experienced his own terror on a number of occasions … was followed ….. it’s all documented in Out of Latvia.
