Global News

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4614041

Archived version

Russia is an acute threat to “every sane country” and Europe is only at the beginning­ of rebuilding its defences, the Estonian prime minister Kristen Michal has said.

Michal called for the European Nato allies to start jointly procuring weapons and seize almost €200 billion­ in frozen Russian state ­assets to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Like Poland and its Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Latvia, Estonia directly borders Russia and sees the alliance’s ability to deter Moscow from attacking the eastern flank as a question of existential importance.

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After Russia sent at least 19 drones across the Polish border and violated Estonian airspace with an Mi-8 military helicopter last week, Michal, 50, said his country’s repeated warnings about Russian aggression had been fully vindicated­.

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Michal suggested that if a peace deal or a “frozen conflict” situation were to be reached in Ukraine, tens of thousands of demobilised Russian soldiers would spill out and destabilise regions far beyond Europe, like the Wagner private military company has done.

He said: “Russia has more men under arms than before the war. They are ­getting higher salaries, they have fighting capabilities. Some of them are criminals and they have to be treated as ­heroes in Russia.

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