TALLINN - Before the ink had dried on the historic border treaty with Russia, the document came under attack by nationalist forces, putting the president on the defensive while Moscow complicated an already delicate situation by saying that Estonia should ratify the treaty first.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said May 20 that Russia wants Estonia to be the first to ratify the border treaty. The minister said that treaty ratification depended upon the Riigikogu (Estonia's parliament), reported the Interfax news agency.
"We will submit [the treaties] for ratification after we have seen that they have been ratified by the Estonian side," Lavrov said.
Estonia's Foreign Ministry said the statement was not surprising, since Russia had behaved similarly when ratifying the border agreement with Lithuania. While Lithuania ratified the document quickly, it took Russia about four years to do it, a ministry spokeswoman said.
"The Estonian ratification process will proceed at a pace appropriate for us and in accordance with Estonia's interests," she added.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council (upper house of Russia's Parliament), told the Russian-language news program on Estonia's public television that the two parliaments could ratify the treaty simultaneously. As an example, he cited the cooperation agreement between the European Union and Russia, which the European Parliament and the Duma (lower house of Russia's Parliament) ratified more or less at the same time.
Estonia's Foreign Ministry said it would submit the border treaties to the government this week, and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip will make the final decision when they are put on the Cabinet's agenda.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry (see interview on Page 18) said the government wanted to send the border treaties for ratification in Parliament as soon as possible - i.e., in the next few weeks.
Former foreign ministers Kristiina Ojuland and Toomas Hendrik Ilves have also spoken out in favor of early ratification.
At the same time, the opposition right-wing Pro Patria Union has linked ratification of the treaties with a declaration confirming that relations between Estonia and Russia should be based on the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920. For Russia, any such declaration would amount to a claim on the disputed territory of Petseri (Pechory).
In this light, President Arnold Ruutel came out and defended the treaty, saying it was not an ideal solution, but Estonia had no choice but to give up Petseri (Pechory) and Jaanilinn (Ivangorod).
In an interview with the Postimees daily, Ruutel said that it wouldn't be right to start border talks all over again, after different governments have for years declared a readiness to sign the treaty.
"People who wish this [restoration of the old border], obviously want the best for Estonia, based on fairly logical argumentation. But such a solution is not realistic at present," the president said.
"About a dozen years ago, when I looked into the matter more thoroughly, I came to the conclusion that, instead of restoring the boundary line unchanged as fixed in the Tartu Peace Treaty, it would be more realistic and justified to set a new border line taking into consideration natural and geographical conditions, nationality of local residents and the wishes of the Seto [a minority Finno-Ugric people] themselves," Ruutel said.
The president added that the Petseri region and territories east of the Narva River 's areas that belonged to Estonia under the Tartu treaty but were incorporated into Russia after World War II 's are no longer the same as decades ago. The working-age population now comprises less than 50 percent of the total, and Russian speakers number around 40,000, while only about 500 Seto remain in the area.
"Against this background, it seems more realistic after signing the border treaty to step up the cooperation of Estonian and Russian authorities and find solutions for the problems of the Seto people," Ruutel said. "Also, Estonia should continue the state resettlement program, by which around 200 people have in the last 10 years resettled from the [Russian] Pechory district into Estonia."
