The main achievement of the Riigikogu Foreign Affairs Committee’s trip to Moscow is, perhaps, the meeting itself – both in the lower house of State Duma and the higher Federation Council. In such format, Estonia’s parliamentarians have not sat around same tables with Russian colleagues for many a year. Perhaps for good reason – with only reprimands exchanged in recent history, why meet face to face to deliver them.
For quite some time, the topic of Estonian-Russian border treaty has come across to me as overly mystified. For over twenty years we have lived without it, with people and goods moving anyway. The more so that Estonia is not the only neighbour of Russia’s not having such a document. Japan hasn’t even a peace treaty with Russia and this has not hindered them from becoming a leading industrial power, post-war.
However, normal neighbour-like relations do include a set of treaties. Signing the border treaty with ratification by both sides would come as proof of both growing up a bit. The differences being known to all, anyhow. The simplest way for Tallinn would be to refuse to put a single word on the paper ere the Kremlin apologises for 1940 and all that followed, pays compensation for damages and stages a Nuremberg-style procedure on Communism. From Russia’s side, it would be simplest to say there’d be no communication with Estonians until Russian becomes the second official language with every local Russian presented an Estonian passport.
It’s clear Estonia may not backtrack on the principle of legal continuity, and that Moscow will continue even more to push for the widening influence of the Russian language. If, despite all the reefs, the diplomats succeed in advancements and find agreement on issues simplifying the practicalities of citizens of both states – that would be quite an achievement.
At the moment, all we have arrived at is the threshold. Even in Estonian government, voices have been raised against the new border treaty. There are all kinds of other treaties like the treaty of avoiding double taxation – more practical perhaps than the border treaty – and somewhere at the horizon there lurks the issue of Russia-EU visa-freedom.
Writing this at the Moscow River banks, it feels sensible, however, to seal the agreements for which the window of opportunity today stands open. Sure – the treaties must reflect the interests of both parties. Quarrels and reprimands, between us, will never run out. However, grown-up neighbours would find a way to sensibly agree: the shared staircase needs to be locked up, with lights provided and never used to dump rubbish by neither owner.