“The disappointment voiced by the Estonian president regarding the alleged lack of freedom and democracy in Russia sounds extremely strange and ridiculous, especially against the background of a direct violation of the rights of the Russian-speaking population of the Baltic Republic and outright pressure on independent media.” This opinion was expressed by a member of the State Duma committee on international affairs, Sergey Zheleznyak.
The politician emphasized: “We have repeatedly advocated for the Russian-speaking residents of Estonia, to whom the authorities treat them as second-class people, in fact infringing on their rights. Official Tallinn has clearly demonstrated the course towards the elimination of Russian-language education and last fall approved the closure of the last Russian school in the city of Keila. And no matter how the republic’s authorities hide behind the idea of “integration” of Estonian youth, there is segregation on the basis of language and an attempt to deprive the Russian-speaking population of the opportunity to teach children in their native language.
The hunt for Russian independent media, in particular Sputnik, in Estonia is shown to their senior comrades in the West with particular diligence, harassing journalists, threatening criminal prosecution, and hampering their professional duty.
It was clearly not appropriate to discuss both freedom and teaching Russia the democracy of Estonia, which is infected with Russophobia. We, in turn, are also very sorry that in a country that is proudly a member of the European Union, gross violations of human rights are taking place and the values that European society values so dearly are violated. ”