Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia: “Time is in Putin's favor”

The Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, against whom Vladimir Putin issued a search and arrest warrant this week, warned the United States that it is urgent to unblock military aid to Ukraine pending approval in Congress in Washington, because “time plays a role.” in favor” of Putin’s Russia. Kallas, one of the strongest voices in support of Kyiv, yesterday at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) became a kind of spokesperson for the Baltic countries, which together with Poland and Finland make up the eastern flank of NATO .

“There are big allies and small allies, and each one contributes something; “That’s what the alliance is about,” Kallas defended. The Baltics and Poland are not second-class allies.” Estonia, a country of 1.3 million inhabitants that, like Lithuania and Latvia, has felt the Russian influence since its independence in 1991, invests more than 3% of its GDP in defense, above the 2% commitment agreed in the 2014 by the members of the Atlantic Alliance in the heat of the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea, and which many of the European partners have not yet achieved. The Baltic countries joined NATO in 2004.

Kaja Kallas, declared wanted by Putin on Tuesday for “desecration of historical memory” of Russia with the demolition of Soviet monuments in Estonia, warned the United States of the costs of an isolationist policy. At her colloquium, in addition to the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, was the American Pete Ricketts, a Republican senator, a party that is blocking aid to Kyiv in the House of Representatives in Washington.

Kallas stressed the urgency of stopping Putin in Ukraine and referred to the history of the 1930s in reference to Hitler. “First: in Europe everything spreads quickly. Second: if the United States isolates itself, it will ultimately pay a higher cost. Third, if aggression bears fruit somewhere, it works as an invitation to do so elsewhere and this is a threat to global security,” he reasoned. Regarding the death of the Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, the Estonian Prime Minister said that “it shows that Putin’s agenda has not changed.”