4 ms·

Former journalist from Estonia here. Our media republished a 1994 speech given by late president of Estonia Lennart Meri at a banquet in Hamburg, Germany. Vladi

by marttt 5y ago

Former journalist from Estonia here. Our media republished a 1994 speech given by late president of Estonia Lennart Meri at a banquet in Hamburg, Germany. Vladimir Putin, a then internationally unknown politician from St Petersburg, was also among the listeners -- and demonstratively walked out of the room during Meri's speech, as reported by Deutsche Welle [1]. Quoting DW: "On February 25, 1994, Putin was also in attendance. One distinguished guest, then-President of Estonia Lennart Meri, gave a speech. Putin did something that has never happened at this ceremony: he got up and left. "With his legs straight [ed.: in a marching stance], throwing a contemptuous glance at the host, he left the hall, every step accompanied by the creaking of the parquet," according to a correspondent for the German magazine Zeit. "His exit was followed by whispers. Who is he? What's his problem?" What exactly did Meri say that so annoyed Putin? The speech reads like a prophecy of what happened 20 years later in Crimea. And Putin's reaction shows that he sent a clear signal to the West. The Estonian president referred to a paper from the foreign ministry in Moscow: "It notes that the problem of ethnic Russian groups in countries neighboring Russia cannot be solved by diplomatic means alone." Other means were conceivable for Moscow, Meri concluded. He warned against Russia's "neo-imperialist policy" and appealed to integrate Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, into the "democratic world." Lennart Meri was a former filmmaker, literary translator, writer and IMO a world class intellectual with excellent speeches. For anyone interested, I google-translated this Hamburg 1994 speech to English [2]. The original source in Estonian is also present on the homepage of President's Office [3]. 1: https://www.dw.com/en/vladimir-putins-infamous-history-in-hamburg/a-39529602 https://www.dw.com/en/vladimir-putins-infamous-history-in-ha... 2: https://zerobin.net/?5938a7875752194a#kVyn/9uj46bUH+M1z7rk+wATSuZPfijRUVV4BSPPpuA= https://zerobin.net/?5938a7875752194a#kVyn/9uj46bUH+M1z7rk+w... 3: https://vp1992-2001.president.ee/est/k6ned/K6ne.asp?ID=4236 https://vp1992-2001.president.ee/est/k6ned/K6ne.asp?ID=4236

cormacrelf 5y ago
Interesting! A bit of an echo happened yesterday: there was a big walkout at the OSCE meeting, before Belarus and Russia started to speak. https://twitter.com/rikardjozwiak/status/1496913193360400387 https://twitter.com/rikardjozwiak/status/1496913193360400387 https://twitter.com/ger_osce/status/1496917994559066117?s=21 https://twitter.com/ger_osce/status/1496917994559066117?s=21
paganel 5y ago
To be fair Estonia's treatment of its Russian community fed right into Putin's propaganda machine, when you still have this: "7.3% are "persons with undetermined citizenship"" (to quote wikipedia [1]) ~30 years after the break-up of the USSR then you know something was not done right on Estonia's part when it came to really integrating the Russian community. The same partially goes for the condition of the Russian community in Ukraine, especially recently. This is of course not a discussion that we can have right now, in a neuter manner, so to speak, because there's a war just close to us (I'm from Romania myself), but going forward the people involved will have to look back and see when things starting going adrift. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Estonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Estonia
- picsao 5y ago
- trymas 5y ago
  AFAIK like in Latvia - these people (mostly russians) had (and still have) 3 choices: go back to russia, apply for citizenship or be left as "non-citizen". If after ~30 years after break-up of USSR you have not gone back to russia (because quality of life in Estonia or Latvia is probably better), or have not learned the language or do not want to pledge loyalty to the country - then such person is a problem to itself. My social anecdotal bubble tells me that most of such people are very pro-soviet-union, but somehow idea of moving back to "mother russia" scares them. Also in most post-soviet states russian communities can live all their lives without learning local language, i.e. there are native-russian kindergartens, schools, even university programs, russian entertainment and they can expect and be able to communicate almost everywhere in russian. So where's the bad treatment? Putin's propaganda machine will make shit up on the spot - treatment of russian speaking communities is one of them. Maybe you also believe that there's fascist junta in Ukraine or Estonia? russian troll industry are masters of fake news - that will flood everything with multiple bullshit statements.
  - paganel 5y ago
    > then such person is a problem to itself. No, that is a statement that I consider false. I do personally live in a country that has a sizeable ethnic minority (Hungarians/Szekely, depending on the particular region of the country where they live [1]), and many of them do not know the local/national language, which is Romanian. Many of my fellow citizens regard that as almost blasphemy, I (and the law itself) actually have the contrary view, those people have the same right to Romanian citizenship as I do, even if they don't/can't speak the Romanian language. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania

by marttt 5y ago

cormacrelf 5y ago

Interesting! A bit of an echo happened yesterday: there was a big walkout at the OSCE meeting, before Belarus and Russia started to speak. https://twitter.com/rikardjozwiak/status/1496913193360400387 https://twitter.com/rikardjozwiak/status/1496913193360400387 https://twitter.com/ger_osce/status/1496917994559066117?s=21 https://twitter.com/ger_osce/status/1496917994559066117?s=21

paganel 5y ago

To be fair Estonia's treatment of its Russian community fed right into Putin's propaganda machine, when you still have this: "7.3% are "persons with undetermined citizenship"" (to quote wikipedia [1]) ~30 years after the break-up of the USSR then you know something was not done right on Estonia's part when it came to really integrating the Russian community. The same partially goes for the condition of the Russian community in Ukraine, especially recently. This is of course not a discussion that we can have right now, in a neuter manner, so to speak, because there's a war just close to us (I'm from Romania myself), but going forward the people involved will have to look back and see when things starting going adrift. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Estonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Estonia

picsao 5y ago
trymas 5y ago
AFAIK like in Latvia - these people (mostly russians) had (and still have) 3 choices: go back to russia, apply for citizenship or be left as "non-citizen". If after ~30 years after break-up of USSR you have not gone back to russia (because quality of life in Estonia or Latvia is probably better), or have not learned the language or do not want to pledge loyalty to the country - then such person is a problem to itself. My social anecdotal bubble tells me that most of such people are very pro-soviet-union, but somehow idea of moving back to "mother russia" scares them. Also in most post-soviet states russian communities can live all their lives without learning local language, i.e. there are native-russian kindergartens, schools, even university programs, russian entertainment and they can expect and be able to communicate almost everywhere in russian. So where's the bad treatment? Putin's propaganda machine will make shit up on the spot - treatment of russian speaking communities is one of them. Maybe you also believe that there's fascist junta in Ukraine or Estonia? russian troll industry are masters of fake news - that will flood everything with multiple bullshit statements.
- paganel 5y ago
  > then such person is a problem to itself. No, that is a statement that I consider false. I do personally live in a country that has a sizeable ethnic minority (Hungarians/Szekely, depending on the particular region of the country where they live [1]), and many of them do not know the local/national language, which is Romanian. Many of my fellow citizens regard that as almost blasphemy, I (and the law itself) actually have the contrary view, those people have the same right to Romanian citizenship as I do, even if they don't/can't speak the Romanian language. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarians_in_Romania