Estonian SDE chair: MP Allik's denial of Russia threat did not express SDE's position

Photo: Elmo Riig / Sakala

A remark by veteran politician MP Jaak Allik in a longer interview according to which Russia has never attacked the Estonian state in no way expresses the position of the Social Democratic Party (SDE), chairman Sven Mikser said on Tuesday.

"We talked to Allik today who explained the point of the long interview he gave to an ERR journalist in March," Mikser said. "According to Allik, what he meant was that Russia's potential ambitions are not connected separately and solely with Estonia and that the security threat from Russia always has to be viewed in the broader regional context and military defense of Estonia also can take place only together with allies."

"As the Soviet occupation and crimes of the Soviet regime are a truly painful and emotional topic for the Estonian people, every politician, especially one as experienced as Jaak Allik, should be exceedingly precise in his utterances on this topic and sense the impact and possible interpretations of every quote spilled in a broader context," the Social Democrat leader said.

Allik, a member of the Estonian-Russian parliamentary group, said in an interview aired on a foreign policy program of ERR on Monday that Russia does not pose and never has posed a threat to Estonia.

"There has never been an attack by the Russian state on Estonia or the Estonian state. There have always been major redistributions in Europe. Be it the Livonian War or the Northern War or World War I or World War II - they were big pan-European wars," the Social Democrat lawmaker said. "Russia has not had a concrete interest in conquering this tiny Estonia. All of this is just to scare the people and foolishness."