Russian police issue wanted notice against Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, relations have deteriorated between Russia and the Baltic countries, which fear being invaded in turn by Moscow.

Threat to the Baltic countries. Russia has issued a wanted notice against the Estonian Prime Minister, according to a notice visible Tuesday February 13 on the website of the Russian Interior Ministry. Kaja Kallas is being prosecuted in “a criminal case”but the ministry does not specify for what crime or misdemeanor.

The Estonian Secretary of State, Taimar Peterkop, was also targeted by a wanted poster, as well as the Minister of Culture of Lithuania, Simonas Kairys. “These people are responsible for decisions which are de facto an insult to History, they are people who carry out hostile actions against historical memory, against our country”said the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov.

Rejection of the Soviet period

A Russian security source, quoted anonymously by the state news agency Tass, said that these officials were being prosecuted for “destruction and degradation of monuments [d’hommage] to Soviet soldiers” of the Second World War. In recent years, several of these monuments inherited by the USSR after the Second World War have been dismantled in the Baltic countries, as a sign of rejection of the Soviet period, these states considering having been occupied by the USSR.

A Russian minority resides in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, three former Soviet republics now members of the European Union and NATO which have tense relations with Moscow. These relations have further deteriorated with the conflict in Ukraine. The Baltic countries, which consider the threat of a Russian invasion to be real, actively support kyiv in its fight against the Russian army.

Last week, Russia summoned the charges d’affaires of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, accusing them of “sabotage” the Russian presidential election in March by refusing to ensure the security of polling stations in Russian embassies on their soil. In mid-January, Latvia and Estonia decided to end their legal assistance agreements with Russia, with officials from these two countries citing Moscow’s attack on Ukraine as the reason.