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Virtually no one on Russian-language social media supported the president's Restoration of Independence Day speech, writes columnist Andrey Kuzichkin.
Estonian President Alar Karis' speech at the Estonian Restoration of Independence Day reception in the Kadriorg Rose Garden on August 20 was very reminiscent of the message of the famous Soviet cartoon character, Leopold the Cat. Leopold the Cat, driven to complete despair by the antics of the hooligan mice, exclaimed there: «People, let's live amicably!» True, Alar Karis also added: «And freely». But in my opinion, the local «hooligan mice» – the civic activists of Estonia’s Russian world – did not hear this address by the president. Of course, there are many Kremlin bots on the networks whose task is to cast Estonia and our country's politics in a bad light. However, below I will present quotes from comments made by those Estonian residents whom I know from debates I have had with opponents on Facebook for several years.
«Under what other regime could the Health Insurance Fund rob the taxpayer with such impunity and brazenness? Only in such a ‘free’ country... All thanks to freedom – freedom from conscience, freedom from morality and ethics. Thanks to freedom that turns into impunity.»
«The head of state believes that Estonians have reason to rejoice and be satisfied. Estonians may have reason to rejoice and be satisfied. But neither Russian children, on whom experiments are being conducted with state language teaching, nor their parents have such satisfaction. ‘Non-Estonians’ have disappeared from the speech of this person, who was elected president by 93 MPs. They do not exist.»
«‘It is also important that those who were deprived of the right to vote do not think that the state wants to exclude them from social life or sees them as a security threat,’ Estonian President Alar Karis has said. Hypocrisy at the highest level.»
«On August 20, 1704, the Preobrazhensky Regiment, led by Peter I, captured the city of Narva – congratulations to everyone!»
«Estonian history is the history of stupidity, greed, corruption and Nazism!!!»
«All this nonsense looks cheap against the backdrop of corruption scandals, the worship of the blue-and-yellow rag, and the restriction of freedoms for a minority of the population (25 percent). We are becoming a nationalist reservation... unfortunately.»
«In Estonia, freedom means the freedom to steal and shit.»
«Have there been many referendums in Estonia? Have you heard anything about the persecution of the KOOS party or the pressure on the Center Party? Have you heard anything about criminal cases against journalists and lawyers for their professional activities? Or can one work freely in Estonia, do business, and travel abroad? A typical confusion of terms: the declared, universally recognized status of the Estonian state does not even mean adherence to basic human rights.»
Virtually no one supported the president's speech in Russian.
The quotes could go on, but the general skeptical attitude is obvious: on the one hand, the Russian-speaking public does not generally consider Estonia's Restoration of Independence Day as their holiday. On the other hand, the existence of true freedom in the modern Estonian state is categorically denied.
Of course, there are many Kremlin bots on the networks whose task is to cast Estonia and our country's politics in a bad light.
What is the reason for such a dramatic situation that 34 years after the restoration of independence, the Russian-speaking population of our country (I'm not talking about the Estonian-speaking population) does not believe in either freedom or independence?
First of all, I am not discovering America when I say that the main reason for the weak integration of the Russian-speaking community into the Estonian national context is low satisfaction with their lives. The economic situation, prices, inflation, taxes and other problems that the president spoke about equally affect Estonians and other nationalities living in Estonia. However, Russians, who are plagued by an inferiority complex after losing the status of a privileged group previously protected by Moscow, are experiencing it more acutely and painfully.
The mental trauma received during de-Sovietization and decommunization is passed down from generation to generation in Russian and mixed families as a set of myths about the former imperial greatness of the Russian nation during the times of the USSR. And Russian propaganda willingly feeds these myths, growing hostility towards everything Estonian. In Russian-speaking clusters in East-Viru County and Tallinn, the rejection of Estonia as a nation state has reached a scale that poses a threat to the security of the state. To a large extent, this is related to Russia's war against Ukraine, which is portrayed in the Russian-language information space as the unceasing military victory of the Putin regime over Ukraine’s Bandera Nazis. Such narratives of Kremlin propaganda provoke a desire for revenge in mono-ethnic Russian communities. The secret dream of restoring the privileges and dominance of Russians in Estonia is associated with the victory over «Estonian Nazism» and is visualized in images of a Russian tank in Narva and a Russian soldier at Toompea. Social media commentators do not discuss this openly, fearing that they will be hunted down by the Internal Security Service (ISS), but there are enough indirect signs that show that the number of those in Estonia who are waiting for Russia to liberate Estonia from «Nazism» has sharply increased. Therefore, supporters of the Russian world perceived President Karis’ speech as another attempt to proclaim the inviolability of the Estonian state’s chosen freedom and independence. But this contradicts Moscow’s plans to restore Russian dominance in the Baltic states, which is why Alar Karis’ speech became an object of information warfare.
The mental trauma received during de-Sovietization and decommunization is passed down from generation to generation in Russian and mixed families as a set of myths about the former imperial greatness of the Russian nation during the times of the USSR.
Secondly, President Karis' speech was not ideal either. I undoubtedly support freedom as the main choice that I made half a century ago. I have followed the ideals of freedom all my life. It was because of the lack of freedom that I came to Estonia from Russia in 2014 and I have not been disappointed in my decision. And it is not only about the fact that Estonia is in the leading positions in global ratings as a free country, but also about the real freedom that is physically felt in the country. However, the president's statement that «there can never be too much freedom» seems quite contradictory today. It does not fit into the changed reality.
I think that the main flaw in Karis' speech is the attempt to smooth over sharp corners and avoid stating the fact that Estonia, as a part of Europe, has been living in wartime conditions for four years already. I understand Alar Karis' desire to avoid over-exciting society by repeatedly mentioning the war topic. But daily reports from the fronts of the great war in Ukraine, warships in Tallinn Bay and fighter jets above our heads do not let us forget that we live in a world where a juicer is less important for solidarity and mutual assistance than a drone and a reliable shelter. Against the background of sanctions that restrict economic, informational and movement freedom, discussions about the limits of freedom also sound dissonant. European sanctions against the Putin regime are completely justified, but there is no need to feed the Kremlin's information trolls who could accuse Alar Karis of double standards. In such a situation, it would be more appropriate to explain why freedoms can and must be restricted if there is a threat to national security – a threat that could lead to the complete elimination of all freedoms. The problem of the existing divide in society and the ways to overcome it were drowned in rosy dreams of unity and joining forces to build a common home. But some residents are not at all against the transfer of this home to another owner. And this must also be remembered.
By the way, Leopold the Cat was able to handle the mice only after he took a pill that turned him wild, after which he made the mice obey a strict order. And although President Karis said that people should not be forced to choose a certain lifestyle, there can be various ways to implement the slogan «People, let's live amicably!»