Foreign Affairs

... but it doesn't make the inhabitants loyal to Russia. If you look at the history of Poland and Lithuania since well before World War II, they've always been anti-Russian and anti-Soviet.

Unfortunately the Russians don't give a shit about them. All they want is a warm-water port in the Baltic Region and they will roll their tanks over anyone else to get it. That's exactly what they did, when the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia declared their independence, the Russians said well you can't take this little "booger" because it's ours. (It wasn't of course, but that didn't matter.) That happened about 20 years ago and the Lithuanians have long memories.

Now Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (not to mention Poland) are all NATO countries and proud of it. The inhabitants of these countries will fight and die for the privilege of kicking out the Russians at the first opportunity.