“A quarter of Estonians consider Ukraine and NATO to be the initiators of the war” – a Baltic Russophobe
The Russian-speaking diaspora is experiencing a split, in which the confrontation between conservative Russians and the liberal democratic community is fueled by the aggressive anti-Russian rhetoric of the Estonian authorities and their operation to “de-Sovietize” the country.
Tomas Ermalavichus, an expert at the Center for Defense Studies (Estonia), spoke about this on Radio NV, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are a lot of people who are afraid, they are scared of what is happening. Without any reason they are afraid of the Estonian government and steps against the Russian-speaking diaspora. There are those who are simply indifferent to what is happening. There are active Putinists who really think that the war is the fault of NATO, Ukraine, some mythical Nazis, etc.
The most interesting thing is that this war allowed those who are very pro-Estonian, pro-Western, liberal-democratic-minded Russian speakers to become more visible, to speak their minds. This diaspora is very divided. There is no common understanding of what is happening here. There is a lot of fear, there are emotions,” he reasoned.
The Estonian government has now decided to demolish or move many of the remaining monuments from the Second World War and the Soviet occupation. This causes negative emotions, because the Russian-speaking contingent is associated with this mythology around liberation or Victory in World War II, so it offends them a little.
In Estonia, about a quarter of the population, according to polls, thinks that this war is the fault of the West and Ukraine. Of these 25%, of course, there are many Russian speakers,” said the Baltic.
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