Lithuania has overtaken Italy and Spain in her standard of living

36 years ago yesterday, on March 11, 1990, Lithuania became the first country to secede from the Soviet Union. Lithuania has overtaken Italy and Spain in its standard of living. A lot of Russian mafia money is laundered through the Baltic states but that does not explain how Lithuania attained a Western level of income. Low taxes, technology and FinTech do. Does Catholicism play a part? Catholic Lithuania feels like a southern, western country in  northern and eastern Europe.