According to the lynx, Russia never respected the independent states after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Estonia former president, current retiree and professor at the University of Tartu Toomas Hendrik Ilves is known for its bows, long memory and sharp tongue.
There is no bow on the neck on Friday and the top button on the collared shirt is open. However, memory and language are in their characteristic steel.
It has been eight days since Russia invaded Ukraine.
These days have been followed by poorly slept nights. Nights Ilves browses the news, and in the mornings he wakes up early to check if Kiev is still standing.
Ukrainians fate causes sadness and anxiety.
“The days are one in Guernica,” Ilves says.
What is happening now in Ukraine also happened to Ilves’ own people, albeit with less bombing. History repeats itself: Russia uses the same ethnonationalist theories and Nazi deportation speeches as excuses.
Ilves’ parents fled Estonia in 1944. Ilves grew up in the United States and moved to Estonia after it regained its independence.
Now the Estonians are accepting Ukrainian fugitives.
Lynx has always said directly what he thinks of Russia. In return, Ilves has been accused of being anti-Russian.
Now, however, the worst fears about the true nature of Russia are coming true.
“Russia has a criminal fascist regime that is killing people for no reason. Russia must be held accountable for its crimes. “
Ilves has also said directly what he thinks of Westerners who benefit from big Russian money. Last October, he liked Speech at the Warsaw Security Conferencein which he called the West naive and greedy accomplices of Russia.
Russia’s destructive machinery is fattened by the West.
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“The days are one in Guernica.”
Ilves according to Russia, it never respected the independent states after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
He experienced it himself in the 1990s, when Estonia tried to conclude a border agreement with Russia. Ilves, who served as Foreign Minister, suggested that the border agreement could be copied from Finland.
It did not suit Russia.
“It was said from there that you are not Finland. Russia has always treated us differently, ”says Ilves.
For many different reasons, Ilves has long been convinced that there can be no friends with Russia. Not especially after Vladimir from Putin became president.
“No amount kumbayahia doesn’t help. “
He plays an American historian George Kennan that Russia’s neighbors are either subordinate or enemy to it.
“Estonia is the enemy of Russia. Then you can think about what the others are. ”
Hidden thorns against Finland swarm in Ilves’ speech. According to Ilves, Finland has been arrogant and degrading towards Estonia and Eastern Europe, as have many others.
At the same time, Finland’s relationship with Russia has been illusory.
“Finland came to tell us how we do not know Russia and how much more experienced you are with the neighboring country,” says Ilves.
“I hope you are ready to listen now.”
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“Russia has always treated us differently.”
Other the thorns are not even hidden: the president Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja (sd) have managed to anger Ilves in the past, and the well-remembered Ilves will not forget.
“Sometimes I remind people on Twitter of their offensive speech.”
Former Foreign Minister Tuomioja has often learned about Ilves’ Twitter memoirs. Last in December Ilves called Tuomioja a “pellet”. Even in an interview with HS, Tuomioja is returned to several times.
In 2008, Halonen defended Finland’s more cautious line in commenting on the war in Georgia and stated that there were countries in the EU that were in a “post-traumatic state of stress” in the wake of the Soviet Union.
“As president or prime minister, I would never diagnose another nation’s mental health or teach others about their history of their own country,” Ilves says.
“Yes, Estonian politicians can also say stupid things about Finland and Finns, but it also goes in another direction.”
Oman Ilves says he is very proud of his country’s reaction to the war in Ukraine. Political leadership has spoken for the international media and assisted Ukraine in many ways.
People have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees. Police pick up children at the border with teddy bears.
What is the current mood in Estonia like?
Such that doctors say the number of health checks has risen recently because people want to join the voluntary national defense organization Defense League, Ilves replies.
Prime Minister of Estonia representing the Reform Party Kaja Kallas receives praise from the bottom of the heart from Ilves.
“I am really impressed with Kallas. He is perhaps the most civilized foreign policy minister of all time in Estonia. ”
Natoon The lynx trusts. Then comes but: NATO should be truer in its grip.
According to Ilves, one of Russia’s hard-working faces in Eastern Europe should be given NATO leadership.
He would like a stronger military alliance presence in Russia’s border states. The deterrent should be increased.
Ilves comments on the Finnish NATO debate, saying that in the past, Finnish politicians have justified non-alignment by the fact that the majority of the people do not want it.
Based on recent polls, the climate in Finland has changed. It will be interesting to see how politicians now justify their positions, Ilves says in a semi-skewed way.
In such a big question, is it worth making decisions based on public opinion?
According to Ilves, a referendum is not the best way to decide whether to join NATO. Attempts by Russian influence would be too great a threat. Ilves prefers representative democracy.
“Don’t you have elections coming soon next year?”
The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO would also increase the security of the Baltic countries.
“Now we are the NATO peninsula in the Baltic Sea. But if Finland and Sweden join NATO, the Baltic Sea will become a NATO lake with the island of Königsberg, ”says Ilves.
Königsberg is a Prussian name for a place known today as Kaliningrad.
EU Ilves hopes that a solution will be found for Ukraine between the candidate country and the member state.
Turkey has been an EU candidate country since 1964. Ukraine cannot wait that long, but it is not yet ready to become a full member.
“I would like to see more integration between Ukraine and the EU.”
He would also like security policy to be taken seriously in the EU and for someone with real experience of Russia to be elected High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Now the representative is Spanish Josep Borrell.
Multi now shares the view that Europe and Russia have entered a new era.
The Cold War lasted from 1945 to about 1989 or 1991, no matter how you want to look at it. From then on, the post-Cold War period ran from 1991 to 2022.
“In Russia, it ended a little earlier, but in Europe that time ended on Thursday last week.”
In the new in time, Europe will thus be more united than it has been for years. The time of blue-eyed is over, a new Cold War has begun.
Germany’s complete turnaround in trade policy, raising defense spending and military preparedness is a huge change.
The lynx also praises the actions of France. France has taken a tough stance against Russia and has begun seizing oligarchic property such as luxury yachts.
Other countries could do more, Ilves says and growls.
Who should do more?
Countries with Russian oligarchs as citizens. For example, ones whose name starts with a T, Ilves says.
Does he mean Gennady TimtchenkoCitizens of Finland, Russia and Armenia?
The lynx shrugs.
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