Translated material
There will be no sanctions against Estonia
The Kremlin has identified its priorities at the upcoming Russia-EU summit
The issue of Estonia's actions regarding the monument to the Soldier-Liberator will be raised at the Russia-EU summit , but the main topic of the meeting will be the development of cooperation between Moscow and the EU, a source in the Kremlin said.“Of course it will,” the source said, answering journalists’ questions about the relocation of the monument. “This is a politicized issue that will take place (at the meeting).”
“We will raise the question that this happened 17 years later, that it is necessary to move the monument. If they (Estonians) had destroyed it immediately after independence, the logic would have been unacceptable to us, but understandable. Why, when they were not members of the EU, verbally assured about the desire to build up relations with Russia and be tolerant with national minorities, and now this position has seriously changed? - said a representative of the Kremlin administration.
At the same time, the source said: “There will be no negative attitude (regarding the summit - Ed. ), we expect the same from our European colleagues." According to him, the parties will focus on plans to build four common spaces, movement towards a visa-free regime and international topics.
“We have one emphasis - moving forward together with the EU to create four spaces, to expand the legal framework, to bring closer each other to the EU on international issues. The emphasis will be on the positive and on a pragmatic approach.”
According to the source, 90% of the time at the Russia-EU summit will be occupied by this issue and only the rest will be taken up by the situation around Estonia, US plans to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern Europe, the problem with Russia’s ban on the import of meat products from Poland.
At the same time, as the Kremlin representative predicts, at the press conference following the summit the situation with the distribution of journalists’ attention will be exactly the opposite.
The source denied the possibility of postponing or canceling the summit due to events in Estonia. “Only if the weather is bad,” he said. And he immediately admitted that he was joking: “And this is out of the question.”
The source also rejected the suggestion that Russia would impose sanctions against Estonia. "This is not true, there are no instructions on sanctions. We are limited in our ability to influence Estonia."
At the same time, he admitted that the position of the European Union, which came out in support of Tallinn in the situation with the monument, disappointed Moscow.
“The problem is the imbalance of this position,” the source said, explaining that if, along with support for Estonia, Brussels had declared the inadmissibility of revising the results of the Second World War and revising history, Russia would have perceived it differently.
According to him, Moscow understands the motives of the EU, which cannot condemn Tallinn, since this would mean admitting that they accepted an immature member into their ranks.
“The most important thing that is unpleasant for the EU is that for many years they have been conscientiously funding various programs for the integration of national minorities and language support. Now it is clear that this money was wasted,” said a representative of the Kremlin administration.
The Russia-EU summit will take place on May 17-18 in the Samara region.