Russian people dislike Estonia

Sergei Matvienko, the son of the mayor of St. Petersburg, announced today that he is giving up his Estonian residency, withdrawing all his business interest and selling off his property in Estonia (Демонтаж Сергея Матвиенко). The announcement comes one month after the Bronze Soldier events, which apparently triggered his decision. What was he waiting for so long? Call me a realist, but I have hard time believing that a rich businessman would give up good profits for an arguable mater of ideology.

The decision is Mr. Matvienko’s to make. I cannot say that I am devastated by the prospect of loosing a bunch of filthy-rich “new Russians” residing on a private island in Tallinn. Neither do I believe that their absence is going to be a blow on Estonian economy. In this situation, I want to say a simple British “hmm…” with a shrug.

It is a different matter that worries me in the news – the decision came under the pressure of acutely negative Russian public opinion towards Estonia. Apparently, Mr. Matvienko has been under fire for his Estonian business long before the last month’s scandal. What irks the Russians in this matter? According to the news, it is the idea that a rich Russian businessman is investing into the economy of a hostile neighbour, while Russia could do with more investments into its own economy.

A public opinion poll, conducted by a Russian company earlier in May, shows that 53% of Russians support breaking all diplomatic ties with Estonia (Россияне наполовину порвали с Эстонией). It looks like all but the 3% who did not know how to answer the question, disapproved of the decision to move the Bronze Soldier. Curiously, if I had to answer in the same poll, I would not find a box to tick, which would properly represent my view on the matter – supporting or understanding the Estonian side is not even an option.

President Putin openly announced that Estonians had betrayed his farther who was fighting in Estonia in WWII and, at one point, had to hide from the Nazis in the forest (Behind Putin's Estonia Complex). Estonian country folks, who were bringing food to the hiding Russian soldiers, eventually gave them up to the Germans. It was a twisty story. No wonder Russian president doesn’t like Estonians. But Russians love their president, so here you go.

Estonians, however, do not share similar sentiments. No matter how much Estonians despise Russian state-sanctioned propaganda and brainwashing against our country, we can hardly match the vigour and imagination of Russians in showing our indignation.

At the same time, in a Russian town of Stavropol, two gangs met up in a forest and had a massive fight (Чем дальше в лес, тем больше скинхедов). Hundreds (!) of young people were beating each other, killing one Chechen student and injuring many more, in the course of “resolving misunderstandings”, while police was watching the events from a distance. The Russian news report that the clash between apparently Slavic and Caucasian (from the Caucasus) gangs was of purely ethnic character, but there is no official comment on the events.

Russian racism is not conspiracy, paranoia or urban legend – it is a reality. Now, do remind me – why did they call Estonians Nazis and fascists?

PS Links in the posting are pointing to the news, from which the information is gathered. The Moscow Times article about Putin is very good (and in English). Other articles are in Russian. The picture is from Postimees.
PPS Being of half-Slavic and half-Estonian origin, such postings do not come easy, despite the mocking tone.

Afterthoughts

A few illustrations to Russian anti-Estonian propaganda. This time, it is neither official, political or media originated fury - this is every-day life for you.

The sign on the shop door says: "Attention! There are no products from Estonia, and there will never be any again!"

The sign on the restaurant door says: "No entry for Estonians"

The billboard shows a road sign to Estonia being crossed over and says: "All other countries without restrictions and with friendly prices"

The sign says: "No entry for Estonians and dogs"

While Russia seems to be far from reconciliation, the life in Estonia is moving on, almost as usual. I suspect that there is still a lot of emotion boiling under an apparently peaceful surface, but I believe in the calm-loving nature of our people.

After weeks of silence and no-talk on the controversial issue of the Bronze Soldier events, my Russian friends in Estonia have started sharing brief comments. I guess everyone has much to say, but no-one really wants a discussion. I am amazed at the deep shock that these events have caused.

At least one consolatory observation I have made over the last weeks. While many Russians in Estonia do not approve of the government's decision, many more have said that Russia should have no business in this, but it has pursued its interests nevertheless. This unacknowledged fear of Russian meddling seems to be the only point that everyone agrees on. And that is a refreshing sign after all. We all want our future in Europe, and there is no other way.

PS. For the sake of intellectual property rights and in response to a comment on this posting, I have to say that the pictures used here were not taken by me. They first appeared (as video, not still images) in a TV news and have been later forwarded through internet without any reference to the source. Therefore, all I can say is that they were found on-line.

In the information vacuum

BBC news irk me - inadequate, Russian-minded, inaccurate. I had to look for the new channels of information on the events in Estonia. Actually, the focus is slowly shifting to Moscow where Estonian embassy has been literally sieged by young Russian activists. Today, Estonian and Swedish ambassadors were attacked physically.

Lately, I have turned to the Estonian news channels for my daily dose of information. The coverage has been perfect - fast, factual and with a typically Estonian healthy dose of scepticism. Today, this channel was cut off. Due to cyber-attacks on the information systems in Estonia, I have not been able to access important sites all day. BBC mentioned these cyber-attacks in quotation marks - I guess they have no need to access any of the major Estonian sites.

It might sound too new-age to be a problem, but for a country, which held the first on-line parliamentary election in the world, disruption of e-services is a serious problem.

Now, I had to turn to Russian news sites - at least they indicate the area of new developments in the conflict, albeit under a thick sauce of anti-Estonian propaganda. Then, I turned to the blogs.

Along the way, I found a great article on the true ethnic picture of Estonia. I have referred to this blogger earlier with a pinch of admiration. Guistino, an American in Estonia, has a nice easy language and a lot of knowledge about my country. His reactions to the latest events are an interesting read.

BBC is biased towards Russia

For the last couple of days, I have been reading BBC news holding my breath, and then noisily exhaling and chanting: “this must be an objective unbiased view.” But it is not! BBC is neither objective nor unbiased in their portrayal of the recent events in Estonia.

BBC predominantly quotes Russian officials, who do not spare energy pouring dirt over our government and spreading the most despicable lies, leaving the Estonian officials only a marginal place for comments. As result, Estonia has appeared as a naughty fascist country wanting to rewrite history and discriminating its Russian population.

Many important details are either mentioned on the sidelines or skipped alltogether. There has been no mention that the urgency to relocate (not remove or demolish) the Bronze Soldier monument from the city centre to a military cemetery has been growing with the increasing unrest and demonstrations at its site, that the hasty move finally happened as reaction to unprecedented looting and vandalising on the central streets of Tallinn. The fact that one demonstrator was killed through the knife of another demonstrator and not as result of clashes with police has not been mentioned.

(Picture above: Looting a shop in Tallinn city centre. Source: Postimees)

The most disappointing, however, is that the BBC has not shared half a word on the situation of Russian population in Estonia apart from citing furious nationalist comments of Russian officials on the topic.

Political scene in independent Estonia is probably the best example of “ethnic issues” in the country. At the wake of our democracy 15 years ago, we got a bunch of Russian and other national parties in addition to the classical political parties on the spectrum from socialists to conservatives. A few years ago, such parties vanished into the foggy history, their activists joining various political parties based on their ideology and platform. National parties had lost their urgency and electorate – people did not associate any more based on ethnicity, but based on their political views.

Please excuse my conspirative tone, but this happy time must have been a disappointment to someone who started stirring up forgotten ethnic feelings (=intolerance) anew and bringing people to the Bronze Soldier monument, telling them that they are discriminated and hated.

(Picture: Members of Russian parliamentary delegation inspecting the Bronze Soldier for signs of damage. Source: Postimees)

The latest news about “Russian officials lambasting Estonia” quotes many insults and lies spat out by the Russian parliamentary delegation during an official visit to our country. It has little, however, on the despicable snooping and unruly behaviour of those Russian officials – surprise visits to the places where rioters were held overnight, examining toilets of detention centres for blood stains and the Bronze Soldier for signs of damage, refusing to attend a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign affairs, and only inviting Russian media for an alternative press conference held at the Russian embassy. And there was not a word about the Russian officials demanding Estonian government to step down, which they willingly shared right before the official and supposedly diplomatic visit to our country.

BBC quotes Estonian ambassador to the Russian Federation as saying that Russian youth outside Moscow embassy has been "shouting, committing vandalism, writing on the walls of the embassy, throwing stones" as if this data was subjective and unconfirmed. It has not mentioned a word about Estonian embassy workers being stranded in the building for six days now, about OMON (Russian special security forces) having to escort the ambassador out of the building. Neither has BBC mentioned threats by the Russian youth in Moscow to demolish the Estonian embassy building with hammers and sickles, turn back every car with an Estonian licence plate at the border with Russia, or pictures of insults on the walls of the embassy and vandalising our flag. To be sure, Russian authorities have ignored all the pleas to secure safety and order around the embassy.

BBC quotes Russian news agency and Russian public officials for facts on the events in a different country – a country, which is sovereign and independent, on the events of a purely internal nature. It is not only unjust and biased – it is insulting!