Mediocrity affecting Russian relations

TALLINN - Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet calls the historical materials posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry homepage, about Estonia “joining the Soviet Union voluntarily,” a mediocre piece of writing that Estonia should ignore at the official level, reports Postimees Online.

“The fact that Russia writes about the events with such distortions indicates that the mentality of that state has not changed over the past twenty years, and certain people there are still stuck in the Soviet past,” Paet said.
“The fact that Russia still does not want to admit the real history is also the reason for how its relations are with NATO and Europe today. Unfortunately that is the case.”

Paet said that Estonia should not react to such “mediocre writings” officially, since it can have an effect contrary to what was wished for - making people read it who otherwise wouldn’t.

The Russian Foreign Ministry posted recently on its Web page a long document with a description of events before and during World War II which claims that in 1940, “powers loyal to the Soviet Union” came to power in Estonia and the other Baltic States as the result of elections.