HELSINKI - Estonian leaders
don't believe that the assuming of office by new Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev will rapidly improve relations between the two countries, the
initiative for which according to the country's president and government should
come from Moscow, Finland's STT news agency said.
Estonian Prime Minister
Andrus Ansip said when appearing before foreign journalists that it's Russia
who must wish to have good-neighborly relations, STT said.
It said that relations between Estoniaand Russia
became particularly tense after the riots in Tallinn last spring, with Moscow
accusing Tallinn of violation of
the rights of the Russian minority and fascism. These accusations continue to
this day, the agency said.
"It's sad to have to waste so much time responding to false allegations
by Russia,"Estonia's
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said. "We should arrive at a level where we
could use our energy for the right things, not on who says something more
aggressively or arrogantly about the other," he said.
The Finnish paper said that the president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, does not believe that Medvedev will
bring changes, as a bill is being handled by the Duma lower house of Russian
parliament right now that expands the powers of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
in foreign policy.
So the foreign relations of Russia
will remain in the same hands despite the change of president, Ilves observed.
STT recalled the Russian demand that Estoniaend proceedings against Arnold Meri, the Soviet war hero being tried in
connection with his role in the mass deportation of civilians to Siberia.
"Why should we do it?" Ilves asked. "Do you imagine Germany
having demanded Israel
to leave [Nazi criminal Adolf] Eichmann without punishment?" he said.
The Estonian president said
one rather should ask what kind of country is it that demands ending of a trial
held on charges of crimes against humanity.
"The problem of the Russians is that they don't want to admit Estonia's
having been independent before 1940," said Paet.
Likewise, no top-level leader of Russia
has visited Tallinn after Estoniaregained its independence.
STT recalled that immediately after the events of last April about 60
percent of respondents in a Russian survey said they saw Estoniaas the country most hostile toward Russia.
A few months later that place was taken by Georgia.
It's easy to manipulate with public opinion with the help of controlled
media, Paet said in his comment.
