“Weakness provokes Putin”
Kallas warns against Western wishful thinking about Russia
February 21, 2024, 12:02 a.m
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In the Baltic states, Russian imperialism was already perceived as a danger while Germany still believed itself to be on the path to rapprochement under the principle of “change through trade”. Estonia’s Prime Minister Kallas fears that the West will continue to misjudge Putin.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has sharply warned the West against naivety towards Russia. “My people and I observe with a certain concern how little attention is paid to what is currently brewing in the vastness of Russia,” said Kallas in Hamburg as a guest speaker at the traditional Matthiae meal in Hamburg City Hall, which was also attended by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“From a subjective point of view, it is understandable that the collapse of the Soviet Union caused a sense of triumph in the West,” she added. It is also understandable that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the initial focus was on reform forces in Russia. “However, this attitude has put the West in danger of wishful thinking,” warned Kallas.
She was reminiscent of the former Estonian president Lennart Meri, who was the guest of honor at the Matthiae meal in 1994 and who had warned against Russian neo-imperialism. Vladimir Putin, who attended the meal in Hamburg as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg at the time, left the meal angry after the speech.
One should not be distracted by this today if Russia wants to scare the West. Instead, everything should be done “to support Ukraine in pushing Russia back into its territory,” demanded the Prime Minister. “Our mantra should be that defense does not mean escalation.” Resistance doesn’t provoke Russia, weakness does. She is repeatedly asked what Russian President Vladimir Putin would do if he lost. “My answer: We should be more worried about what he will do if Russia wins.”
Kallas is urgently calling for more aid to Ukraine
Kallas praised the fact that Germany has now drastically increased military aid to Ukraine and is becoming involved militarily in the Baltics. “Together we can help Ukraine win this war. We have the resources, the economic power, the expertise,” said the Prime Minister. The strength of the West outweighs that of Russia. “Let us not be afraid of our own power.”
Kallas has ruled Estonia since 2021, and she has been on a Russian wanted list since last week because Estonia erected a Soviet war memorial – a replica of a T-34 tank with a red star – in Narva in the summer of 2022, a few months after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine demolished on the border with Russia.
“We have to be brutally honest with ourselves – just as Russia is still bombing Ukrainian cities and marching through their towns and villages, we have not kept our promises,” Kallas said. Ukraine is running out of ammunition. Long-term commitments are important, but it is also a fact that the side that has more ammunition wins. Kallas said that at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rightly asked why Putin could still continue the war. “We must answer this question – not just with words, but also with actions.”