RUSSIA DECLARES KAJA KALLAS, PRIME MINISTER OF ESTONIA WANTED
By Julio Garcia / Aquí Europa
Russia today, February 13, 2024, declared Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas a “wanted” person in an undisclosed criminal case.
The Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted persons database showed Kallas, who has been leading Estonia’s government since 2021, as “wanted under the Criminal Code,” without specifying the charges. Also declared wanted was Estonia’s state secretary, Taimar Peterkop.
Kallas has been one of the most forceful voices in his rejection of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, Estonia is the country that offers the largest percentage of its budget in the form of support to Kiev.
In a recent post on X, Kaja Kallas recalls her statements to the digital newspaper Kleine Zeitung in which she emphasized that for a lasting peace, Russia has to lose its last colonial war. Kallas added in that post that Europe must help Ukraine win this war and further strengthen “our defense.”
The Russian news agency TASS has noted that “a case has been opened against Kallas and Peterkop for destruction and damage to monuments to Soviet soldiers” in Estonia. Estonian authorities initiated the dismantling of various Soviet monuments in the country in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, the Estonian prime minister has been strongly in favor of helping the Ukrainians and against a negotiation with Moscow. For Kallas the crucial issue in the war is sufficient ammunition.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently assured that he has no plans to invade the Baltic republics or Poland, which are NATO members. A public stance similar to the one he maintained regarding Ukraine until shortly before attacking it.
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry recently summoned the Estonian Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow, Jana Vanamelder, over the decision of the Baltic authorities to dig up the remains of Soviet soldiers from the military cemetery in Tallinn without the endorsement of their relatives.
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This text was originally published in Aquí Europa, with whose permission we reproduce it.
