VILNIUS - Last week more than 100 prominent international political and cultural figures sent an open letter to the heads of Western governments warning of the anti-democratic trends in Russia being undertaken by President Vladimir Putin.
Signatories to the letter included U.S. Senator John McCain, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. Baltic signatories were also involved, namely former Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar and former Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
The letter calls on Western governments and institutions to side with democratic forces in Russia and oppose Putin's attempts to curtail the balance of power in favor of the Kremlin.
The "letter of 100" opens with expressions of sympathy and condolence for what it calls the "heinous act of terrorism" in Beslan, in which roughly 350 people were killed, almost half of them children. But it charges that Russia's leaders are using the tragedy as an excuse to suppress democracy.
Following the tragedy in Beslan, the Kremlin has drafted legislation that would significantly bolster the president's powers vis-a-vis the regions and the judicial branch. The Kremlin wants to handpick governors for Russia's 89 regions and to essentially take on the authority to appoint and fire judges.
The letter says the time has come for Western governments to take sides with democratic forces in Russia and "to speak the truth about what is happening in Russia." It also criticizes the Kremlin's increasingly aggressive stance on foreign policy.
Landsbergis said the letter was a wake-up call to those in the West who have been led to believe that Russia is on a democratic, pluralistic path of development.
"It is a warning to Western democracies, societies, and communities - and also for some leaderships - which are a little bit too naive, and they believe that Russia is still a democracy, [that it] is making progress and reforms," he told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
He said the letter was also a signal of support for the dwindling number of true democracy supporters in Russia.
"It's a signal that 'You are not alone, you are not forgotten,'" he said. A U.S. congressional staff member told RFE/RL that inspiration for the letter came from a U.S. think tank allied with the opposition Democratic Party, though Landsbergis said the original source for the letter was insignificant.
"It's more interesting how this letter will work," he said. "It's an initiative of real and active democrats - democrats not only in belonging to the party, but [also] in belief." He added that he hoped the letter would cause Western leaders to more realistically assess Putin's approach to governing the world's largest country.
Former Czech President Havel said that the letter was not an act of hostility toward Russia. "I have always expressed the idea that friends should speak to each other openly and should tell each other what they think," Havel said.
Otherwise, the letter echoes popular political sentiment across the Baltics, which has increasingly become a target of the Kremlin's criticisms in recent months.
Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Estonia's Parliament and a member of Res Publica, warned the West against changes in Russia in an article that appeared in the Diplomaatia (Diplomacy) supplement to the weekly Sirp. He drew parallels with cooperation during WWII that led to the Cold War.
"It would certainly be premature to brand the Russian president as a ready-made dictator," he wrote. "At the same time it is clear that Russia is moving away from the democratic principles laid down in its constitution, and only a change in course could help prevent the establishment of a totalitarian regime."
Mihkelson cited the suppression of free speech and control over the mass media as evidence that democracy was off-track in Russia. He wrote that all the TV channels broadcast nationwide were under Kremlin control and that when watching current newscasts, one is reminded of the Soviet-TV style of the 1970s, that is when the population was brainwashed with reports on a country progressing toward a bright future.
Mihkelson also pointed out that governance in Russia, including Parliament, had become directly dependent on Putin's so-called power vertical.
He said that the former communist ideology was being supplanted by an even more dangerous nationalism. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, he wrote, civil liberties were being curbed and bills now arriving in the State Duma were very similar to the bans and orders of Soviet times. He said that the most shocking bill was one that wanted to significantly limit the people's freedom of movement with the right of surveillance granted to local authorities.
"Vladimir Putin's activity as president of Russia is carried by the corporative spirit of the KGB and a stance hawking back to the glory of the Soviet empire," Mihkelson said.
The MP recalled that if Nazi Germany had not been a common enemy, it would be very difficult to imagine Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt allying with Joseph Stalin.
Strategists in the EU and the United States have not fully taken into consideration the opportunity that Russia could shed all respect for democratic values, he wrote. "Instead of acting consistently and methodically with Russia as an important foreign partner, they prefer to avoid the issue in the European Union," he continued, adding that without shaping common politics, it would be impossible to react effectively to changes taking place in Russia.
"Above all, Germany and France should understand that the Europe of their dreams cannot be built up with the support of Sochi or other similar meetings," he said, referring to the congenial meetings between Putin and his German and French counterparts in the south Russian resort town.
