<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="" itemprop="name">Moscow rattles Estonia with talk of 'concern' for its Russian population</h1>
<h2 class="" itemprop="description">
<p>In the wake of Crimea's annexation, Estonia is shoring up its ties with NATO and the United States.</p></h2>
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By
<span class="">Michael Amundsen</span>, <span class="">Correspondent</span> /
March 21, 2014
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<p class="" id="pgallerycarousel_caption" title="Photo Caption">US
Vice President Joe Biden (r.) and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik met
with media in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday. Mr. Biden met with Polish and
the Baltic leaders to discuss an upgrade in defense strategies for the
region.</p>
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Tallinn, Estonia</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Russia" title="Title: Russia" target="_self" class="" rel="nofollow">Russia</a>
says it is worried that a former Soviet republic isn't doing enough to
protect its large ethnic Russian population. But this time, the Kremlin
is not talking about <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Ukraine" title="Title: Ukraine" target="_self" class="" rel="nofollow">Ukraine</a>.</p>
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<p>It's talking about <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Estonia" title="Title: Estonia" target="_self" class="" rel="nofollow">Estonia</a>.</p><p>The
tiny Baltic state is a member of both NATO and the European Union. But
the tone coming from their giant neighbor to the east – a neighbor that
just occupied Crimea on similar grounds – has Estonians nervous.</p><p>“I
believe that most Estonians are neither hysterical nor surprised by
President Putin’s behavior in Crimea,” says Eiki Berg, a professor of
international relations at the University of Tartu, Estonia’s leading
research institution. “This is very similar to what Stalin’s Soviet
Union did in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1939-40.”</p>
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<p>Estonia enjoyed a brief independence between the world wars, ending
with invasions by the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and then the Soviets
again, who occupied the country until 1991. The post-war occupation of
Estonia brought deportations that affected nearly every family in this
country of 1.3 million, and large numbers of ethnic Russians immigrated
to Estonia, a legacy which is felt today in the country’s demography.</p><p>The
considerable ethnic Russian population in eastern Estonia’s border
region, which in some areas is 90 percent Russian speaking, came to the
fore on Wednesday, when <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319" target="_blank">a Russian diplomat raised concerns</a>
to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "Language should not be used
to segregate and isolate groups," the diplomat said according to
Reuters, and Russia was "concerned by steps taken in this regard in
Estonia as well as in Ukraine."</p><p>“Estonia and Latvia have
significant Russian-speaking minorities that could be exploited in a
similar way [to Ukraine], using Russian media under control of the
Kremlin,” says Martin Hurt of the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Tallinn" title="Title: Tallinn" target="_self" class="" rel="nofollow">Tallinn</a>-based International Center for Defense Studies, a security oriented public policy think tank.</p>
<p>“But
there are major differences with the Ukraine situation," Mr. Hurt adds.
"The NATO alliance, of course, provides a massive deterrent and Estonia
has been a member of the EU for the last 10 years. The Russian minority
understands its benefits and the lesser standard of living across the
border.”</p><p>Estonia’s ethnic Russians are considered to generally
have far better opportunities than their cousins across the border in
Russia. But integration has not been without problems. Most of Estonia’s
social problems fall disproportionately on the shoulders of Russian
speakers, from unemployment to crime to <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1016/Why-is-China-White-killing-Estonia-s-Russian-speakers" target="_blank">drug and alcohol abuse</a>. Tallinn’s concrete Soviet-era ghettos are populated largely by ethnic Russians.</p>
<p>Discontent
occasionally boils over. In April 2007, Russian speakers rioted for two
nights after the Bronze Soldier memorial to fallen Red Army
“liberators” of Estonia during World War II was relocated from the
center of Tallinn to a military cemetery. This was followed by a cyber
attack on Estonia’s computer networks generally attributed to the
Russian government. Differing interpretations of the events of World War
II, which many ethnic Russians in Estonia see as the defeat of the
scourge of fascism and which Estonians view as the beginning of a brutal
occupation, are a frequent cause of discord.</p><p>Visitors to
Estonia’s border city of Narva, in the industrial Ida-Viru County, could
be forgiven for feeling they were in Russia. It is dominated by
Soviet-era housing blocks and is almost 95 percent Russian speaking.
Less than half of Narva’s residents are Estonian citizens and some 36
percent are Russian citizens. Another 16 percent hold no citizenship at
all. Russian-language media from across the border dominate the flow of
information.</p><p>Katri Raik, the head of University of Tartu's Narva
College, wrote in Tallinn’s Estonian-language daily Eesti Päevaleht on
Tuesday that ethnic Russians near the border are being fed a daily diet
of Kremlin propaganda that can sway opinions in its favor. She added
that Estonia needs to better reach out to its Russian minority to
provide a different interpretation of world events.</p><p>“There is
always a risk that some segments of the ethnic Russian population in
Estonia, especially those living in the northeast, being intoxicated by
Russian propaganda, could easily follow Putin's call whenever this may
happen,” says Professor Berg.</p><p>In the meantime, Estonia is shoring
up its ties with NATO and the United States. The leaders of the Baltic
states met with US Vice President Joe Biden in Poland earlier this week
to discuss an upgrade in defense strategies for the region.</p><p>“We we
see clear parallels with the events proceeding World War II,” adds
Berg. “This is neither paranoia nor just a bad dream. Welcome to our
world.”</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------
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