European officials remain “sluggish” in their response to efforts at rewriting the history of World War II and to claims of discrimination against the Russian-speaking minority in the Baltic states, an official from Moscow has told a meeting of ethnic Russians in Belgium.

Grigory Karasin, Russia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, told the third annual European Russian Forum that “the Russian community in traditional overseas countries could play an important role in supporting fellow compatriots in the (Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Baltic states, by drawing on its rich practice of ethnocultural survival in a foreign environment.”

The forum was initiated three years ago by Tatjana Ždanoka, who is a member of the European Parliament representing Latvia and a member of the pro-Russian political party For Human Rights in United Latvia (Par cilvēka tiesībām vienotā Latvijā).

Speaking Nov. 9 in Brussels, Karasin applauded the forum’s effort to encourage dialogue between the European Union and Russia, according to a transcript of his speech released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

However, he criticized those in Europe who would rewrite history, particularly attempts to equate Nazi Germany with the Soviet Union.

“I am deeply convinced: to try to make the USSR a culprit or accomplice of the unleashing of this war means to mock at common sense and cynically manipulate the facts,” Karasin said. “And from the human point of view—just to desecrate the memory of the 27 million Soviet citizens who gave their lives in the fight against fascism.”

Karasin zeroed in on the Baltic states, and especially Latvia, noting that “for some time now they have been openly making heroes of those who during the Second World War joined the Nazis and participated in their crimes under the pretext of fighting against the Soviet regime.”

Authorities also have turned against anti-fascist fighters, Karasin said. He pointed to the case of Soviet war veteran Vassili Makarovich Kononov, who in 2003 was convicted in Latvia of war crimes. The conviction was overturned in 2008 by the European Court of Human Rights, but now is under appeal to the court’s Grand Chamber. Kononov was implicated in a May 1944 incident at Kārsava, Latvia, in which nine civilians were killed by Soviet commandos for allegedly collaborating with German forces.

Latvia’s foreign minister, Māris Riekstiņš, responded to Karasin’s criticism by observing that recent efforts by various Russian officials to influence the court’s decision are unacceptable. Russian representatives are without reason criticizing others for politicizing history, but they are doing the same, Riekstiņš said in statement issued Nov. 9 by the Latvian Foreign Ministry’s press office.

Karasin told the forum that Russia also has repeatedly raised questions with European officials about discrimination against the Russian-speaking minority in the Baltics, noting problems such as “mass statelessness, the systematic liquidation of Russian-language secondary education (and) discrimination in the labor market.”

“We feel compelled to state a sluggish reaction of our European partners to Russia’s concerns,” Karasin said.

For this reason, the official said, it is important to solidify links between Russia and the Russian diaspora. Karasin noted the upcoming World Congress of Compatriots, scheduled Dec. 1-2 in Moscow. The congress is expected to draw 500 representatives from 90 countries.

“We are for the continued buildup of links with the Russian community abroad so that each of you feels the support of your historic homeland and sees a reliable mainstay in it,” Karasin said. The congress, he said, “will be another step towards the consolidation of the Russian overseas community.”

Latvia has reported the first death from the H1N1 flu virus, while the number of confirmed cases in the country has topped 100, according to health officials.

A 56-year-old woman died Nov. 9 in the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital from complications associated with the flu, according to a hospital press release.

The woman, who became ill after visiting Kaliningrad in late October, was admitted Nov. 3 to the hospital in Rīga. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and initially treated in the hospital’s pulmonology section, but then transferred to the intensive care unit.

Pēters Ošs, head of the hospital’s intensive care unit, said in a prepared statement that the H1N1 flu can have more serious consequences in patients with other medical conditions. The woman who died had previously been diagnosed with lung and kidney problems.

“People without other diseases rarely die of the flu,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state Infectology Center of Latvia reported Nov. 9 that the number of confirmed H1N1 cases has risen to 110. A week earlier only about 40 cases had been confirmed, according to the Ministry of Health.

The first confirmed case of H1N1 in Latvia was reported June 23.

A leading Swedish newspaper has thrown its support behind former Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga to become the next president of the European Council, which is the European Union’s main decision-making body.

“Europe needs a strong, respected and unifying figure as a new, permanent president,” the newspaper Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial published Nov. 5. “Her name Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.”

Vīķe-Freiberga, who served two terms as Latvia’s sixth president, is one of several candidates—including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair—mentioned for the post.

With the Czech Republic’s ratification on Nov. 4 of the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon, changes to the structure and operation of the European Union are expected to take effect Dec. 1. Among them is the selection of a president of the European Council to serve a 2.5-year term. Currently the presidency rotates among EU member states every six months. Sweden holds the presidency now, while Latvia would have been scheduled to take over in the first half of 2015.

Among reasons the newspaper supports Vīķe-Freiberga is that it believes the time has come for the European Union to elect a woman as president, as well as to select someone from the EU’s newest members. Latvia joined the EU in 2004.

In its editorial, Dagens Nyheter argued that Vīķe-Freiberga would be a good representative for Europe because of her speaking skills, her fluency in five languages and because she “has a strong commitment to Europe.”

Vīķe-Freiberga was born in Latvia in 1937. Her family fled during World War II to Germany and then relocated to Morocco. After settling in Canada, Vīķe-Freiberga completed her education and became a professor of psychology. She returned to Latvia in 1998 to head the Latvian Institute and was elected president in 1999.

The newspaper acknowledged that her candidacy could be troublesome for some critics because of Vīķe-Freiberga’s strong ties to the United States, because Russia might object and because some people believe someone who has grown up in Canada should not be president of the European Council. Dagens Nyheter dismissed the arguments.

Meanwhile, support for Vīķe-Freiberga’s candidacy is growing online. One Web site, A Woman to Head Europe, has gathered nearly 2,800 signatures supporting the former Latvian president.

“An exceptional character, Ms. Freiberga is a woman of peace, a committed, determined European,” according to the Web site.

The Web site was registered Oct. 28 by David Juni of Saint Mande, France.