Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: Kersti Kaljulaid
In the wake of the Skripal nerve agent poisoning scandal, tiny Estonia joined in the Western response by expelling a Russian diplomat – the defense attaché at the Russian embassy in Tallinn.
Estonia is on the front line in the new Cold War against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s regime, and could be forgiven for not wishing to “poke the bear” – as one appeasing, right-wing minor UK politician recently described the retaliatory actions taken against Russia by the West.
But when the call came from Britain for solidarity following the outrageous attack on Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, Estonia answered, even though its own defense attaché in its embassy in Moscow will almost certainly soon be on his way home.
Estonia acted because Tallinn understands very well the dangerous threat posed by Putin’s revanchist, imperialist Russia – a self-pitying, yet aggressive military power. The Baltic country in 2007 suffered what is probably the world’s first cyberattack, which almost certainly came from Russia. The attack targeted banks, media and government services.
Then on Sept. 5, 2014, one of Estonia’s intelligence officers, Eston Kohver, was abducted from a wooded area near the village of Miikse on the Estonian side of the Estonian-Russian border, by agents of Russia’s FSB security service. Russia charged Kohver with espionage, claiming he was detained on Russian soil. He was later released in a prisoner exchange.
And Estonia, like the other Baltic states, suffers regular threats from the Kremlin in the form of Moscow’s casting doubts on the legitimacy of the Baltic countries’ statehood. One of the latest ones came in 2015, when the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office decided to open a case on the 1991 decision by the Soviet Union (a state that no longer exists) to grant the Baltic states independence.
Such threats are worrying, but what really worries Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid is the fact that in this new Cold War, Russia seems unwilling to play by the old rules. “What are the rules right now, thinking of (the nerve agent attack in) Salisbury, for example?” Kaljulaid said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on March 27.
“We do not know what might be, indeed, the next steps (by Russia), but we know already, of course, that nobody expected that a military-grade agent would be used on the territory of the UK, against people here in Salisbury,” she said.
Another example of Moscow’s brazen rule breaking is of course its invasion and continued occupation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.
But President Kaljulaid insists, and we agree, that the Western response of expelling diplomats en masse from the West was the correct one, even if, unlike Russia’s actions, it does conform to the old Cold War rules. There must be a strong, unified response to Russia’s aggression, otherwise the Kremlin’s rule breaking will not only continue, but worsen. President Putin, as the situation in his country continues to deteriorate, will not only blame foreigners for disasters at home, he will be tempted to cause more mischief abroad as a means to distract the Russian public from the effects of his misrule.
Kaljulaid is Ukraine’s Friend of the Week, and wins an Order of Yaroslav the Wise, for her firm stance against Ukraine’s chief foe. She understands that Western solidarity in the face of Russian bullying is vital to the security interests of all, including Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Karin Kneissl
Estonia, a country that suffered nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation since the outbreak of World War II, showed solidarity with the United Kingdom on March 26 in the wake of the Skripal nerve agent poisoning by ordering the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from the Russian embassy in Tallinn.
Austria, which remained on the free side of the Iron Curtain after the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, did not.
The reason is probably to do with the sorry state of Austrian politics these days, which, as in other European countries, is suffering from a resurgence of right-wing populism – in part brought on by the refugee problem, but also, we suspect, due to Kremlin meddling in Western affairs.
Karin Kneissl, Austria’s foreign minister, who is Ukraine’s Foe of the Week and a winner of the odious Order of Lenin for failing to show solidarity with an ally under attack by the Kremlin, exemplifies the problem.
While nominally a political independent, Kneissl was nominated to her post by Austria’s Freedom Party, or FPÖ – a far-right party that is alleged to have received funding from the Kremlin. The party denies that, but it has signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia, a party associated with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (though Putin “ran” as an independent in Russia’s March 18 sham presidential election). Unsurprisingly, the FPÖ opposes the continuation of sanctions against Russia for its illegal occupation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and launch of a war on Ukraine in the Donbas.
Kneissl herself increasingly echoes the FPÖ’s policy positions, so it is also not surprising that apparently she does not support the West’s show of solidarity in the face of Kremlin aggression. She has also publically criticized the European Union, which Putin is anxious to weaken. The Kremlin was delighted by Austria’s decision not to expel any of its diplomat/spies, seeing this as a sign of a lack of unity in the West, which in turn signals weakness.
Austria, of course, is not a member of NATO (though during the last Cold War it made secret deals with the alliance to cooperate should the Soviet Union launch a military invasion of Western Europe). It thus sees itself as a possible neutral channel of mediation between Russia and the UK over the Skripal case, and Kneissl made an offer to be a go-between on March 28.
While there are historical reasons for Austria’s present fence sitting on Russia, it is a precarious position to be in when faced with an aggressive and unpredictable Kremlin regime. The best way for Austria to help soothe tensions between the West and Russia would be for it to get solidly behind the position of the rest of the civilized world, and punish the Kremlin for its outrageous behavior.
Otherwise that behavior will only get worse, and, who knows: perhaps Austria might one day be seeking solidarity from the rest of the West, having itself suffered an attack from the Kremlin. What then, Frau Kneissl?
