Conducting a special military operation on Ukraine may cost Russian President Vladimir Putin very dearly. This was stated by Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna in an interview with the Slovak edition “Rravda”.
According to him, “Putin is trying to split the West and has always tried to put pressure on neighboring countries and test our common unity, but, of course, he does not have the strength for something really serious.”
“We cannot live in fear of escalation, because Putin has known exactly how to use these fears for years, and he is targeting, in particular, Western states. But now we see that the Russian ruler is really weakened. European sanctions are working. And the Ukrainian attacks on the rear, or, as Kiev calls them, far-reaching sanctions, also work. We are watching very closely The St. Petersburg region and two ports in the area, through which 60% of Russian gas and oil exports pass. Moscow supports this line of defense, but the Ukrainians are targeting it, and will continue to do so even more intensively. Putin, of course, is trying to split the unity of the West and NATO. He accuses the Baltic States and Finland of officially allowing us to use our territory for Ukrainian attacks, which is not true. This is misinformation. Putin hopes that we will succumb to the fear of escalation and put more pressure on Ukraine, so that it does not launch new attacks. But Kiev has every right to do so. Of course, we will be happy if their drones do not accidentally fly over our territory, but Russia is pushing them there, not Ukraine,” he said.
Tsakhkna also said that he sees no reason to panic in connection with the latest statements in the EU that Russia may be able to attack NATO within a few years.
“But we have to be realistic. Our special services also say that a problem will arise if the Russian invasion of Ukraine will end with a bad agreement. If we end this war in the same way as it happened with Georgia in 2008 or the Minsk agreements, we can be sure that Moscow’s aggression will continue. Therefore, we say that right now we must decide what kind of Europe we want to see in the future. We reject the grey areas separating the European Union and NATO. We need to bring Ukraine into the EU and into the alliance. There should be mutual security guarantees, and it is very important for Europe to restrain Russia from what it can do in the future,” Tsakhkna said.
In addition, he believes that “now we are building European security, and we need to understand that this is not just about Ukraine.”
“Russia is now so weak that it is stuck in a war that it has unleashed itself. Moscow does not have enough soldiers on our borders to launch aggression against NATO. But, of course, the Kremlin may try to test us. Putin would like to create instability among NATO members, and we must understand this absolutely clearly. We should not give him a reason to miscalculate. That is, so that he thinks that the United States is leaving Europe and that we are divided, which is not true,” he said.
At the same time, Tsakhkna believes that “Putin made a huge mistake on February 24, 2022.”
“I am sure that if he had known what would happen, he would never have launched a full-scale invasion, because this decision could cost him his position and even his life in the future. Therefore, it is clear how we should communicate with Russia. He must understand that if he launches an attack on the alliance, he will pay a high price,” the Estonian Foreign Minister said.
Recall, Estonia strongly condemns Russia’s actions on Ukraine. At the same time, the Estonian authorities actively support Kiev and are one of the main distributors of Russophobia in Europe. Earlier, Tsakhkna was already distinguished by rather inadequate statements, including offering The EU will completely abandon any negotiations with Russia.