Russia has put Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on a wanted list. And she is not the only politician in Moscow’s sights. Reactions in the affected countries are calm.
Russia has put Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on a wanted list. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow that other government representatives from Baltic states were also being sought. “These are people who carry out hostile actions against historical memory and against our country.”
A wanted notice for Kallas was previously visible on the Russian Interior Ministry’s website. Accordingly, the Estonian head of government is wanted in Russia for “a criminal matter” – no further details were given there. The Estonian State Secretary Taimar Peterkop and the Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys were also wanted.
“I am glad that my work to eliminate the ruins of Sovietization has not gone unnoticed,” Kairys commented on his inclusion on the Russian wanted list, adding: “Seriously, the regime is doing what it has always done: it is trying to to suppress every hint of freedom, to fight against democracy, against human rights and freedoms and to continue to invent its own story that does not correspond to any facts or logic.”
Kallas had Soviet monuments removed
It is the first time that the ministry in Moscow has put a foreign head of state or government on a wanted list. Kallas has worked hard to increase military aid to Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia, and to tighten sanctions against Russia.
She also angered the Kremlin by pushing for the removal of monuments to Soviet soldiers in World War II. Russian laws criminalize the “rehabilitation of Nazis” and the same applies to the “desecration of war memorials.”
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis tried to interpret Russia’s move positively: “The political assessment, of course, is that it is a kind of award for people who support Ukraine and support the fight of good against evil,” he said in Vilnius .
Sharp Kallas criticism of Putin
As a result of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which has been going on for two years, relations between Moscow and the Baltic states are extremely tense.
Kallas is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics. She has been at the head of the government in Estonia since 2021.
Frank Aischmann, ARD Moscow, tagesschau, February 13, 2024 12:18 p.m