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EESTI ELU reedel, 24. jaanuaril 2020 — Friday, January 24, 2020
Nr. 3
A Political Appeal
Concerning the Territorial Integrity of the Republic of Estonia English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Putin to improve Russian “democracy”. Really? Catching Russians and Westerners of guard Vladimir Putin just recently announced his plans to shift some presi dential powers to the parlia ment before he finishes his fourth and as the constitution demands, his last term as president. He also reshuffled the cabi net, replacing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, putting a low profile official with no po litical ambitions in charge of the government. Skeptical ana lysts see this as Putin paving the way to keep power ‘de facto’ after 2024 when his term ends. One notes that in Iran as in some other autocratic states, genuine power resides not in the president, but in some other institution. It’s interesting to note that the new Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin is said to be cut from the same cloth as Putin. He was the chief of Russia’s Tax Service, a publicly obscure position that controlled a government agency known to be a tool of repression, some times used to punish Putin’s po litical enemies. The new prime minister and the President are like two peas in a pod. As expected Putin denied wanting to remain in power indefinitely as his critics have charged. In his view “it would be very worrying to return to the situation of the mid-1980s when heads of state one by one remained in power until the end of their days, [and] left office without having secured the necessary conditions for a tran sition of power”. Putin’s proposals are still vague. Observers suggest that the proposed changes Putin has offered could in effect permit him to retain power as national leader either as prime minister, chair of the country’s parlia ment or as head of a revamped, but still undetermined state council. Putin, true to style, has also proposed that Russian law has supremacy over international tribunals, so that the European Court of Human Rights would no longer have the authority to issue rulings that Russia op posed. Although he has suggested
that lawmakers could name prime ministers and Cabinet members, and implied that pre sidential powers would be cur tailed, he proposed a greater role for the State Council, an obscure body of regional gover nors and federal officials, indi cating he might take a leading role there. Critics see this as the new seat of real power, similar to the Soviet era when absolute power resided not in the legisla tive Supreme Soviet, nor the Council of Ministers, nor the Head of State, but rather in the position of first secretary of the Communist Party. Putin’s steady march towards an autoc racy has been evident for years. One must remember that at the end of his first constitution ally limited first two terms he switched roles with Prime Minister Medvedev for one term, to be come president once again for the third term. Unquestionably legal, but hardly in the spirit of the constitution, which is meant to deter oneman rule – at least theoretically. This blatant missues of the law overwhelmed Russian aspira tions for possible liberalization. With Putin’s return for a third term, tens of thousands in 2011-2012 protested publicly against his deliberate flaunting of the intention of the country’s constitution. Even though human rights advocates have expressed outrage at Putin’s manoeuver ing, many of his critics seem to accept defeat. They really had no expectations of Putin surren dering power after four years. However Westen observers were encouraged by Putin’s proposals that at first glance seem to be a move towards true democratization. Even though Putin’s popularity has been slip ping, the Levada Centre surveys show that he still retains the support of some two thirds of the population. Displeasure with his dictatorial rule is not the main determinant in the slight decrease in public accep tance. It’s based more on eco nomic grievances. Poverty and deprivation are rampant in plac es other than Moscow. It’s not important for Putin that he hold the president’s title, as long as the country remains ‘Putin’s country’. LAAS LEIVAT
Addressed to: European Union and NATO member states, states having diplomatic relations with the Republic of Estonia, to the United Nations, and the international general public We will soon mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II (WWII). That traumatic period of history continues to weigh heavily on several coun tries even now, including Estonia. The Molot ovRibbentrop Pact (MRP) – signed between communist Russia and Nazi Germany in 1939 – paved the way for WWII. We direct your attention to the fact that the Pact also ultimately resulted in numerous coerced and for cible territorial changes for a number of states and peoples of Europe. Previously (on Feb. 24, 1918), the Republic of Estonia declared itself independent and broke free of Soviet Russia. A war of independence waged with Russia ended successfully for Estonia on February 2nd, 1920, with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty. By signing the treaty, Russia recognized Estonia’s independence, renoun cing “forever all sovereign rights possessed by Russia over the Estonian people and their territory.” Having first entered into the MRP on August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union occu pied Estonia on June 17, 1940, and then forcibly incorporated Estonia into the Soviet Union in August. On August 23, 1944, (and in subsequent increments), Moscow annexed 3 eastern municipalities of Viru County from Estonia, along with most of Petseri County. Because of the war between the Russian Federation (the suc cessor of the Soviet Union), and Georgia in 2008, and also be cause of the subsequent armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine beginning in 2014, the nations of the world took active notice of the illegal actions of the aggressor state and reaf firmed the right of the victim states to their territorial integri ty. We direct your attention to the fact that what was ex perienced by Georgia and Ukraine recently had already been done in an analogous manner to Estonia 75 years earlier. The topic remains cur rent, because the very same aggressor is attempting, after the fact, to gain legal recogni tion of its annexations in neigh boring countries, and has now also started to attempt to justify and “rehabilitate” the MolotovRippentrop Pact. Russia is now accusing Estonia of presenting “territorial claims”. An excerpt from the blog of Henn Põlluaas, the cur rent Speaker of the Estonian Parliament, is of relevance here: “Estonia has no territorial
Tartu Peace Treaty.
Treaty of Tartu on display to mark centennial ERR, January 2020 The Treaty of Tartu will be on display later this month at the National Archive and at the Estonian National Museum to mark the centennial. A hundred years ago, the signing of the treaty between the Republic of Estonia and Soviet Russia ended the 431day War of Independence. The treaty can be seen on January 29 at the main building of the National Archives and from January 30 to February 2 at the Estonian
claims against Russia. We don’t want a single square meter of Russian territory. All we want is to get back what belongs to us. Russia has annexed about 5% of the territory of Estonia. Thus, de facto, Russia has ille gal claims against Estonia in violation of international law”. After World War I, the task of preserving the peace was en trusted to the League of Nations in 1919. Although those expec tations weren’t met, mankind has placed the same expecta tions on the United Nations (UN), the successor to the League of Nations. We can rea sonably expect UN member states who value democracy and the rule of law to openly sup port the expectations of Estonia for the restoration of the Esto nian-Russian border that has been illegally shifted westwards through aggression, due to Soviet annexation at the end of WWII. It would not be appro priate to regard this as an issue merely between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Estonia. It also concerns the lo cation of the eastern border of NATO and the European Union, as demarcated in the Tartu Peace Treaty, which is located in the Treaty Series registry of the UN Treaty Collection under the identifier 11LTS29. On the 100th anniversary of the Tartu Peace Treaty, the book “A Century of the Peace Treaty of Tartu 1920-2020” was pub lished. OSVALD SASKO President, The Society for the Perpetuation of the Peace Treaty of Tartu of 1920
For more information, please contact: The Society for the Perpetuation of the Peace Treaty of Tartu, Tähe 15-35, 50103 Tartu, Estonia (Secre tary’s email: Aldo.Kals2@ gmail.com)
Photo: EV100
National Museum. The peace treaty signed in Tartu on February 2, 1920, at 00:45, was transferred to the Estonian foreign mission in Stockholm in March 1940. Until 1963 it was kept among the documents of the Estonian exile government and then in the Baltic Archives in Stock holm. In 2002, the treaty returned to Estonia and was formally handed over to the National Archives on June 21, where it is still kept. Events marking the centen nial of the signing of the treaty will take place in the National Archives, the Estonian National Museum and elsewhere.
International literacy conference to concentrate on multilingual education ERR, January 2020 The Estonian Reading Society and Tallinn University or ga nized the IV Baltic Sea Conference on Literacy “Searching for a Common Language” last week, at the heart of which lies literacy in multilingual education. The presentations took take place at Tallinn University. The international conference offered more than 100 presenta tions, with speakers from nearly 40 countries. Topics included supporting and developing literacy in different forms and levels of education. Listeners learned about readers-writers with special needs, adult educa tion, libraries in the modern information world and a great many other things. Main organizer of the con ference, chairwoman of the Estonian Reading Society Mare Müürsepp said that the con ference’s theme “Search for a Common Language” points to the need for understanding and solutions that would function in different cultural settings and internationally. “The tip of the spear will be on especially ur gent topics, such as recognizing and supporting special needs early on, digital competencies, describing and measuring 21st century literacy,” Müürsepp added. The conference’s keynote speaker was professor Heikki Lyytinen from the University of Jyvaskyla who talked about (Continued on page 9)
