“Unity is called into question”: why did Lithuania express discontent with the visit of the President of Estonia to Moscow

Vilnius criticized Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who visited Moscow. As stated by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, Tallinn should in the future coordinate similar steps with its neighbors in the Baltic region.

“Usually we coordinate and act together. This is always more effective, as there will always be attempts to split us and test the unity of European or Baltic countries, ”the Lithuanian Foreign Minister said in an interview with the BNS portal.

The diplomat added that before the visit to the Russian capital, Tallinn did not inform Lithuania about the issues Kaljulaid intends to discuss with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry hopes that the Estonian side will share information later, the minister added.

Recall that Vilnius does not maintain contact with the Russian Federation neither at the level of heads of state, nor at the ministerial level, unlike the rest of Europe.

As stated by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, the dialogue with Moscow will serve to legitimize the “illegal” actions of Russia, such as the “annexation” of the Crimean peninsula.

Recall that the Crimea became the Russian region in 2014 as a result of a referendum, in which the majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula voted for reunification with Russia.

"The words of the yard hooligan"

According to experts, the remark made by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry to the Estonian side looks at least inappropriate.

“The statement that Estonia should co-ordinate something with Vilnius is more like not the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the words of a domestic hooligan. Estonia and Latvia are sovereign states with comparable economic potential. You cannot communicate with the Estonian republic in such a key, ”Nikolai Mezhevich, president of the Russian Association for Baltic Studies, said in an interview with RT.

He expects Tallinn to respond to a neighbor. Perhaps this will be done not publicly, but through diplomatic channels, the expert suggested.

“In general, the President of Estonia took a bold step, realizing that she would be criticized in Lithuania, in Latvia, and even in her own country,” Mezhevich added.

• Kersti Kaljulaid and Vladimir Putin.
• © Alexander Nemenov / Pool via REUTERS

According to Kirill Koktysh, an associate professor at the MGIMO political theory department, there is no point in talking about the absolute unity of interests of the Baltic republics, since in reality there are quite a few contradictions between them.

“Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are the Baltic countries with different interests. If one side claims its primacy, the other two simply won’t understand it, ”explained the expert in an interview with RT.

According to him, such a reaction to the visit of Kaljulaid from the neighbors was quite expected.

Recall that Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid arrived for the first time in the last 8 years on an official visit to Moscow on April 18. The President took part in the opening after the restoration of the historic building of the Estonian embassy in Moscow. Speaking at the ceremony, the politician said that Estonia was “ready to interact” with Russia, and her personal presence in the Russian capital was the “clear signal” of this.

Meeting on the same day with Vladimir Putin, Kaljulaid suggested discussing issues of global geopolitics, since Russia and Estonia “became constructive partners” in international structures. Now the Estonian side claims to be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

In turn, the Russian leader noted that the lack of official contacts between the countries over the past years has hit the mutual trade turnover - in just two years, this figure has fallen by 50%.

“The absence of contacts between officials, official bodies, between neighbors is, of course, not normal,” TASS quotes Vladimir Putin.

Kaljulaid expressed her hope on her Facebook page that in relations between Estonia and Russia "a new breath will open." During the talks, the politician invited her Russian counterpart to visit in 2020 the Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples in Estonian Tartu.

“We agreed to continue the communication,” Kaljulaid said at the final press conference for Estonian publications.

"Nervous reaction"

However, it is too early to talk about a serious thaw in relations between Russia and Estonia, experts say. Thus, just a few days before Kaljulaid’s trip to Moscow, the Estonian Security Police (or the Department of Defense Police. - RT ) published a report stating that Russia was allegedly trying to weaken Estonia’s security with the help of humanitarian programs. The Estonian special services found it suspicious that even the training of Estonian students in Russian higher education institutions seemed to be the case: the youth of the Baltic state is becoming the object of recruitment in Russia. The Russian Embassy in Estonia called the document an attempt by the special services to intimidate the inhabitants of this country with imaginary threats.

• The opening ceremony of the multinational NATO battalion in Tapa, Estonia, April 20, 2017.
• Reuters
• © Ints Kalnins

In addition, at the end of April, Estonia will become the arena for the next NATO exercise, Spring Storm — 2019. About ten thousand soldiers from different countries of the alliance will take part in these maneuvers. Three hundred French soldiers, accompanied by armored vehicles and tanks, have already arrived on the territory of the republic. The contingent from the Fifth Republic is located in the military town of Tapa.

Also, British helicopters and pilots of the 661st squadron of the Air Corps of the Ground Forces and five Apache helicopters within the United States Special Air Service (SAS) group were redeployed to Estonia. During the exercise, air units will monitor the activity of the conditional enemy in areas adjacent to Russia.

As stated by the head of the British Defense Ministry, Gavin Williamson, the main reason for the transfer of army units to the Baltic states is “a threat from Russia”.

In general, in recent years, the Baltic States have actually turned into a training ground for the constant maneuvers of the North Atlantic Alliance, experts say. And the political leaders of the Baltic republics are constantly talking about the "Russian threat".

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has shown the greatest activity in this direction. In March, she urged the United States to actively participate in exercises in Lithuania. At the same time, Grybauskaite admitted that even now the US military is so often in the republic that, in fact, they participate in its defense. And last year, Grybauskaite called on the Pentagon to place the Patriot air defense system on combat submarines and send them to the Baltic Sea.

“Lithuanian foreign policy at the doctrinal level is established as deliberately anti-Russian under any conditions. And because of the Kaljulaid trip, the unity of the Baltic republics in relation to Moscow has been called into question. Hence the hysteria of Vilnius arose, ”Mezhevich believes.

According to Kirill Koktysh, another reason for the reaction of Lithuania is the ambitions of Dali Grybauskaite, who seeks to establish her country's leadership among the Baltic states.

“The Lithuanian leadership is worried that the Estonian president could have agreed on something in Moscow. Every country does not want to be turned around at the turn, ”explained Koktysh.

Nikolay Mezhevich adheres to the similar point of view. In his opinion, now the Lithuanian authorities are experiencing “jealousy and envy” towards Tallinn.

“For a political leader of the Baltic state to go to Moscow is an event, a feat and a sensation. A nervous reaction can be dictated by the fact that in Lithuania they began to think whether it was not time for the Lithuanian president to also go to Moscow, ”concluded Nikolai Mezhevich.