What absolutely stuns me about the Brexit decision is how the people of Western and Southern Europe take EU Membership for granted. Central and Eastern European nations were clamoring to get in after the fall of Communism. Ukrainian protesters flew the EU flag to fight for their human rights during Euromaidan. There’s a reason why the most pro-EU nations are Poland and the Baltics. The EU is flawed but it promises peace and stability to a region that has been under bloodshed for the past century.
And now it looks like Poland and the Baltic Republics are the most vulnerable, not just from an economic standpoint, but because 1. they have the most citizens working and living in Britain currently (200,000 from Lithuania alone, according to the Washington Post) and 2. quoting from the Post directly, “For an Eastern Europe that is staring across its borders at mounting numbers of Russian troops, the British decision will also have security implications, emboldening the Kremlin and weakening European resolve against Russian actions in Ukraine.”
i am literally crying…