Western relations with Russia cannot return to normal until the Russian regime has changed. Russia must be forced to deal with its history, says the former president of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid in the Uutispodcast.
The attack on Ukraine has made it clear that Europe cannot continue its former relations with today’s Russia.
– The entire administration must be changed, not only [Venäjän presidentti Vladimir] Putin’sformer president of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid says. Kaljulaid was the president of Estonia in 2016-2021.
According to Kaljulaid, Russia must recognize what it has done in Ukraine. Those responsible for genocide must be made to pay for their actions. The situation in Transnistria and Georgia also needs to be clarified.
– Then we can start thinking about how to cooperate with democratic Russia, which is far from its neighbors in terms of development.
However, Kaljulaid emphasizes that he is not one of those who think that Russians are incapable of democracy.
The mistakes of history should not be repeated
Kaljulaid says that the same mistakes as before should not be repeated with Russia.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the West did not force Russia to deal with, for example, what happened after World War II in the Soviet-occupied Baltic states.
– We should have gone through the events of 1956 in Hungary, 1968 Czechoslovakia, says Kaljulaid.
He believes that if these things had ended up in Russian school books, we might have a democratic Russia next door.
– But it was easier to ignore these things. Russia was allowed into the free market and money was blamed on the country, but history was not discussed.
Finland and Estonia had a different attitude towards Russia
In Estonia, Finland has been criticized from time to time for its soft policy towards Russia. Most recently, last week, the Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas pointed to Finland on the subject. He stated that he is happy that Finland is listening to Estonia these days.
When Russia attacked Georgia in 2008, Estonia quickly condemned Russia and demanded a tougher policy from the EU towards Russia. Finland did not do this.
Kaljulaid is of the opinion that the West itself taught Russia that it does not react to Russia’s actions. The occupation of Crimea or the attack on Ukraine would not necessarily have happened if the EU had reacted differently to Russia’s attack on Georgia. Now the world is suffering the consequences.
– Again, this is just an analysis. I don’t blame anyone, says Kaljulaid.
Listen to the entire interview on Uutispodcast at this link.