Why are the Baltic states going to encounter problems?
The Baltics (I can speak mostly for Lithuania) have gone through the same process of de-industrialisation and and de-agriculture that Russia after 1992 and Greece after it joined EU. If you take a ride outside Vilnius, you'll see a lot of neglected fields. Abandoned factories are everywhere. Our family's friends worked at a drills factory in Vilnius, which supplied USSR with high-precision drills. The factory got privatised/turned into a cooperative in 1990, and in 1992 it got sold and closed down. The country has been turned into a good consumer, but for work, people look outside of the country. While bashing everything Soviet, Lithuania still lives on the dwindling heritage from the Soviet time. There is one indicator that i found funny: the manhole covers in the streets. If one cares to pay attention to such details, they are all from before 1992, some are as old as from 1970s - it feels like time stopped and no new constructions/repaiers of infrastructure has been done since then. The public transportation park is also largely from the 80s. What I didn't find in Lituania, is antagonism between common Lithuanians and Russians. You hear Russian and Lithuanian speech everywhere, often within the same conversation...
EDIT: And the most important bit. Lithuania switched to Euro this January. From what I've been told, prices are silently creeping up since then, as many sellers simply switch the Lit sign to €, leaving the amount on the tag unchanged.
Here are some pics that I took in Vilnius, just 10-15 minutes walk away from the tourist centre. These are like they are coming strait out of Half-Life 2's City17...
And here is a manhole lock, one of many, from LitSSR, the last 2 numbers is year - 1974:
PS: And there are long queues in front of the Belorussian embassy - people going there for work or to visit families. Belorussia, being the only USSR's republic that didn't get plundered and didn't succumb to the post-Soviet syndrome.