Kaja Kallas becomes EU foreign policy chief – News

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, a pointed opponent of Putin, is set to become the new EU foreign policy chief. A portrait.

The 47-year-old Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, is the best-known political face of the Baltics and was also considered as NATO Secretary General. But someone who wants to eat the Russians for breakfast is too sensitive, was heard from European capitals.

Kaja Kallas is considered the “new Iron Lady of Europe”. At the last Munich Security Conference last February, she quoted the well-known Eastern European historian Timothy Snyder, who wrote that for a country to become better, it must lose its last colonial war. Putin’s Russia must lose in Ukraine in order to become a better country, Kallas added.

We think we have to offer Russia something to appease it, but that has never worked.

After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Kallas had warned about Russia, like many in Eastern and Northern Europe. In the West, however, the warning was dismissed as alarmist “Baltic sound”. Kallas criticizes the fact that the West always feels it has to offer Russia something to appease it.

Russia does not adhere to the principles of international law as a matter of principle. For Moscow, international treaties are merely “political maneuvers.” Kaja Kallas cited the Budapest Memorandum as an example: Ukraine handed over the nuclear weapons on its soil to Russia and in return Moscow promised to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and borders.

Kaya Kallas is demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin be tried as a war criminal before an international court. Putin countered by issuing a wanted notice for her. Kallas, however, was unimpressed: “They want to scare me. The only answer to that is not to be afraid.”

Burdensome history with Russia

Estonia has a long history with Russia. The country was under Soviet rule for almost 50 years. Kallas also has a history with Russia. Her grandfather was one of the founding fathers of the first free Estonia in 1918, which separated from Russia at that time.

Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother – like so many from Estonia – were deported to Siberia on Stalin’s orders in 1949 after the country returned to Russian-Soviet rule after the Second World War.

To prevent history from repeating itself, Estonia is now investing heavily in its army, namely 3.2 percent of its gross domestic product. The small country with 1.3 million inhabitants has taken in 60,000 Ukrainian refugees. That is more per capita than any other country.

Noticeable consequences of the Ukraine war

Kaja Kallas is the face of the modern, digital Baltics. She is a lawyer, served as a member of the European Parliament, became Prime Minister in 2021 and won another triumphant election victory in 2023.

But the war in Ukraine also had its price for Estonia. Inflation rose to 20 percent in 2022. The prime minister subsequently increased taxes on cars, electricity, alcohol and tobacco and has lost massive popularity.

All Estonians welcome her move to Brussels. Some are proud that their small country is now sitting at the table of the big powers. Others are happy that the increasingly unpopular Prime Minister is leaving the country.