Video shows Estonian minister give interview to Sputnik

  • 2017-02-21
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - The Russian pro-Kremlin media outlet Sputnik on Monday published a video of an interview given to its journalist by Estonia's Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps, who previously said she had no idea where certain statements on the subject of the Holocaust and Soviet mass deportations attributed to her were taken from and denied having spoken to a Sputnik reporter.

"I have not given Sputnik those interviews!" Reps told Postimees in remarks published by the daily earlier on Monday. The minister was referring to two interviews published by the Estonian portal of Sputnik in recent weeks. One is a radio interview on Russian-language education in Estonia and the other a written interview on the Holocaust.

In the first interview, published by Sputnik on Jan. 31, Reps tells the channel about her feelings toward the Holocaust and how local politicians are playing nations off against each other in Estonia.

One thought in the interview is how Reps believes the Holocaust was much worse than deportations in Estonia as the latter only served political goals while the former was an attempt at the systematic eradication of all Jews.

Reps claimed to Postimees she has said nothing of the sort. "I know that this 'interview' worried some Estonian agencies; however, it also worried all of us at the ministry in terms of where it's from in a situation where I have not talked to Sputnik," she said.

Reps called a crisis meeting at the ministry to determine how Sputnik could have obtained such a text. "I racked my brains over this for a day and a half," the minister said. The ministry eventually concluded the information is from Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 when Reps visited the Tallinn Jewish School and gave an interview to a community paper.

"A young woman who looked like she was from Armenia or Azerbaijan stood next to us with a voice recorder during our conversation. I suppose she is the author of that piece," Reps said. "I had no idea who she was for she was not wearing a Sputnik badge." Reps say that claims she gave an interview to Sputnik are fabricated as the latter must have passed off her conversation with the newspaper of the Jewish community as its interview.

Reps also said she believes the two news items connected to her person are meant to portray how the Center Party's rise to power has caused attitudes towards Sputnik to shift in Estonia. "They have not shifted. We simply must not believe the nonsense they're publishing," Reps said.

On Monday afternoon, however, Sputnik published a video of the interview clearly showing a Sputnik journalist properly present herself to Reps, who then speaks on the subject of the Holocaust and deportations. The video shows the interview as recorded on the sidelines of a commemoration event at the Rahumae Jewish Cemetery in Tallinn.