Left hanging for the Russian money
09 May 2025
In the usual clash of past and present, it's the people who end up caught in the middle. That's the case right now in Estonia, where since February nearly 4,000 people who built their lives under the Soviet system have stopped receiving the Russian pensions they were promised – by Russia.
Many of these people are elderly Russian speakers – a combination of citizens of Russia, and Estonia's stateless residents. Only seven World War II veterans collectively received a symbolic €7,000 payout in April. For the rest, the payments simply stopped – without a note or comment from Moscow.
These pensions are governed and guaranteed by a 2011 bilateral agreement between Estonia and Russia. This should ensure that people who earned their pensions under the Soviet or Russian systems would continue receiving them regardless of where they live.
The required quarterly transfers from the Russian pension fund have not been made for a while. Estonia, which cannot legally pay out pensions earned under a foreign system, continues to uphold its side of the bargain: around 5,400 people in Russia – mostly former Estonia's residents – continue to receive Estonian pensions without interruption.
Russia's payments have been stopped or reduced in all three Baltic states, as Lithuania and Latvia have similar agreements with Russia. In Latvia, Russian pensioners usually receive around €250,000 each quarter – but this spring only €21,000 arrived, causing restless tossing and turning among the ones left waiting.
Most of those affected in Estonia have some local pension income, averaging around €600 per month. But for more than 200 individuals, the Russian portion – ranging from €15 to €2,800 – is their only income. The abrupt cutoff has pushed some to the edge, threatening their ability to pay for rent, medication, and daily essentials.
 | Emily Mirelle Vutt One of the proposed reasons for the sudden stop in the money flow is that Russia simply ran out of money. Although the partial April payouts suggest sanctions aren't to blame, the freeze could mean the pressures of war have tightened the Russian budget. With the Kremlin under strain from its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, pensions for citizens left waiting abroad may simply no longer be a priority. Another theory? This could be a continuous act of Russian hybrid warfare, where the main goal is to make the people angry by stirring unrest and fueling rumours that Baltic governments have embezzled the funds. |
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