Watching on TV tens of thousands of Russian soldiers invade and destroy Ukraine… nice case How does a citizen of a small country on the Russian border feel with an army of only a few thousand soldiers, less populated than the city of Barcelona? In Estonia, they fear their aggressive neighbors and empathize with Soviet rule and a Ukraine with which they share a sad past under the boots of Joseph Stalin. It’s just a fear that becomes bearable because the country belongs to and is protected by NATO..
The ambassador of the country receives with a cup of coffee on which the emblem of the Atlantic Alliance is printed. Mariin Ratnik TO THE SPAIN NEWSPAPER. The room is filled with photos of forests, lakes and snow that make for a wonderful postcard of Estonia with a population of 1.3 million, a population of 45,000 km2 -like Extremadura- and a GDP per capita of around €24,000. Spanish.
Ratnik (Tartu, Estonia, 1976) says that his government and compatriots are waiting for the invasion of Ukraine. “A year ago our intelligence was clear: they thought something was going to happen in the second half of the year. We were mentally ready. We know from our history that you can’t trust Russia,” he says, describing the national trauma: More than half a century of Soviet occupation from 1940 to 1991: decades of rape, deportations and communist yoke, worst of all intensified during Stalin’s tenure.
February 24, when Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, was Estonia’s national day: the 104th anniversary of its birth as a country. “It’s a holiday. I was cooking breakfast at home in the morning when my Ukrainian helper and friend came in. Did you find out what happened,” he said. We started watching the news together. Later, I held a meeting at the office with my colleagues from the neighboring country and Latvia, which also borders Russia. We looked.”
“People are worried”
For kristi raikEstonian Director of Foreign Policy at ICDS, the experience was equally intense. For himself and his family: “My children, young people, follow the war closely, watch the news, discuss. They worry, they watch war videos very disturbing. I am sure this will have an impact on the younger generations, they will always remember”, says EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA via videoconference from Tallinn.
War is talked about all over Estonia, but something that poses an existential threat, not as a moral or ideological argument. As in Spain. Not because they believe an invasion is imminent, but because of the possibility of a future attack depending on the outcome: if Putin gets what he wants and becomes part of Ukraine, they say he will be encouraged.
There is a deep sense of empathy and solidarity with Ukraine. Kristi Raik finds clear parallels between their occupation and the current situation there. “He brought us very difficult and sad memories of the past of the occupationbeing the target of Russian aggression… Soviet occupation, Red Army violence, torture, rape and terror; the mass deportation of tens of thousands of Estonians to Siberia”. “I don’t remember violence since I was a kid, but I remember the clear feeling among Estonians that we are busy and we don’t want it, we miss freedom; and forced Russification and the obligation to speak Russian.”
Solution: NATO
“People are worried because the threat is there and nothing can be ignored. But at the same time we are members of EU and NATOAnd we trust them. We have a battalion of British, Danish and French soldiers and Spanish troops in Latvia,” says the ambassador. “We feel we have made the right decisions: by entering the Atlantic Alliance we are protected by Article 5 and therefore will be safe.”
Estonia has a modern but small Armed Forces, at least compared to its neighbour. Two professional brigades and a NATO battalion of around 7,000 soldiers, explains Ratnik. There is approximately one year of military service, which is compulsory for men and voluntary for women. Y a “Defense Corps” of reservists. However, all this will be insufficient in the face of a Russian invasion attempt.
The border between Estonia and Russia is in the middle a large lake that acts as a natural barrier. Land borders have defensive fences with radar and other motion detection technologies. And he plans to improve.
At the NATO summit, Ambassador Ratnik explains, Call for better protection of the Baltics. “What we need from NATO is more battalions, also known as “facilitators”: war material, air defense, above all. Militarily, Estonia lacks strategic depth. There is no ground to retreat, no escape. And we don’t want them to invade quickly and then be released, as with Bucha. We know what it is. What they have already conquered in Ukraine is equivalent to that of our country”.
In this context, the Alliance has recently The largest exercise ever conducted by NATO in the Baltic states. Marines from the United States Sixth Fleet, along with Estonian soldiers, among others, participated in “war games” with rehearsals against air, sea, ground and cyber attacks in the town of Saaremaa from May 16 to November 3.
NATO has already said that. Won’t let Putin enter “one centimeter of the zone” between alliance member states.
Analyst Raik explains that if he gains anything as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it may lead Putin to believe he can go further. “The strategic goals are to bring Ukraine into its sphere of influence and to revise the security agenda for Europe: a return to an architecture based on the sphere of influence of large countries. And willing to use violence to develop its own space. Sometimes you hear the words ‘realistic’ for those who want to compromise with Russia. For us they are not. Realism for us is to make sure that Russia is defeated. We want to survive and have our freedom and independence, “he concludes. .
Government crisis in the middle of the war
The majority of the population and the entire political spectrum showed unity in the position to be taken: Russia must be defeated, and if there is a peace agreement, it must be on terms that Ukraine will decide. However, there is also a small percentage of the Russian population in Estonia who support Putin.
One in four Estonians uses Russian as their mother tongue. Some are of Ukrainian origin; others, Russian. “When Estonia was occupied in 1940, we were about 85% Estonian,” explains Ambassador Ratnik. “When we regained our independence in 1991, the proportion of Estonians was 67%. was there Clear Russification policy to break the sense of nation, culture and language”.
Since there are two separate education systems, Estonian and Russian, integration policies have been carried out since independence.
It worked but not completely. There is a part of the population that Russian television informs until the signals are cut off with the start of the war. “About 10% of Russian speakers are pro-Russian; There are others who are very critical of Putin. But for the majority of native Russian speakers, the option is to move on with their lives and not touch the matter,” says the expert. think tank Kristy Raik.
Under these circumstances, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas announced on Friday that it is ending its coalition government.due to disagreements over a bill regarding benefits for family members and children. The security situation in Europe “does not allow us to continue working with the Center Party because of the internal division”, which “cannot put Estonia’s interests above the party’s interests,” he said. A political surge in Estonia, now the ancestral fear of its Russian neighbor.
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