Estonia was forcibly annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940 during World War II.
In 1991 it became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union.
And he does not want to return to the Moscow fold in any way.
Neither did her Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, whose great-grandmother, grandmother and mother were deported to Siberia during the Cold War and
who is now wanted by the Russian Interior Ministry.
Should Estonians be taken seriously
when they claim that Ukraine is just a first step
and that Vladimir Putin's plans involve making Russia grow to recreate the times of the Tsarist Empire or the Soviet Union?
Or, does their past under the boot of Moscow and their proximity to both Ukraine and Russia make them see ghosts?
It has been almost 20 years since Estonia joined the European Union and NATO
, whose treaties ensure mutual defense in the event of an attack, but it is not completely trusted.
With 1.3 million inhabitants (22% of Russian ancestry, a legacy of Soviet times), more than 300 kilometers of border with Russia and a tiny Armed Forces, Estonians think that they will probably be next if Ukraine falls.
That Putin will use them to test the will of NATO and the EU to defend their members no matter what the cost, as European leaders promise.
The decisions that the Russian government is making are not helping to calm things down
.
Last week he put on the hunt for Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, whom she accuses of degrading Soviet-era monuments.
It is unprecedented that a government, not an international court, searches for and captures the current head of government of another country.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, with the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
AP Photo
Ukraine, just an "appetizer"
Estonia believes, and Kallas and his ministers say so, that Russia is preparing for a war against NATO at the end of this decade and that Ukraine is just an appetizer of a much larger plan.
That is why Estonians ask their partners to prepare now.
Its secret services regularly warn of the modernization of the Russian Armed Forces and the increase in military industrial capacity.
They repeat that
Putin never willingly accepted the end of the Soviet Union
and that he has maintained revisionist speeches for years that are confirmed with the attack on Ukraine.
Estonia also fears that the Russians will sooner start a hybrid war that would have them as one of the first objectives.
NATO installed its cyberwar center in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, because of its proximity to Russia and because in 2007 the country suffered three days of Russian cyberattacks that brought its administration and banking system to their knees.
The country, like its neighbor Lithuania,
is the most criticized by European governments
that tried to appease Russia (they pointed to France) before Putin decided to send the tanks.
Alar Karis, Estonian president, published a column this Monday in the digital media 'Politico'.
In it he assures that Russia does not measure weight in economic well-being but in “imperialist metrics”
such as territorial expansion and military strength
.
Karis assures that for his country the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not a surprise “because Russia takes over everything it sees without caring.”
Karis, like other European leaders, considers that “democracy itself is a threat to the current Russian regime, so every democratic country is a threat to Putin.”
He also believes that Putin “does not just want to conquer Ukraine.
He is also testing the resolve of the democratic world
on behalf of other autocrats.
He is also fighting for North Korea or Iran and that is why I support him in this war.”
The Estonian head of state asks his counterparts not to be afraid of Russia: “there are three times the population in Europe and our economy is 10 times larger.”
P.B.