In 1991, the Estonian constitution provided all permanent residents with the ability to vote in municipal elections, while hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians were refused citizenship.
The Russian Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia, on Jan. 23, 2023 (AP)
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal has asked that Russian people living in the country be prevented from voting in municipal elections, regardless of their stance on the Ukraine war. According to the Estonian government, Russian speakers account for 20% of the country’s population of a little under 1.4 million.
NATO regulations dictate that only Estonian nationals can vote for members of parliament, known as the Riigikogu. However, the 1992 constitution provided all permanent residents the ability to vote in municipal elections, while also controversially denying hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians residing in the country citizenship.
Michal asserted that “Russia is a security threat, and Russian citizens should not have a say in Estonian affairs, just like Belarusian citizens,” explaining to an EER media source Friday that “their right to vote must be suspended or taken away.”
He is the head of the Reform Party, which has the most lawmakers in the Riigikogu.
The party governs in partnership with the Social Democratic Party (SDE) and Estonia 200 and is willing to reform legislation or even change the Constitution to ensure that Russian citizens are barred from participating in municipal elections, he stated.
Earlier on Friday, SDE leader Lauri Laanemets argued that Russians who support Estonia but reject the Moscow administration should be allowed to vote in local elections.
He added that the voting prohibition should only apply to Russian citizens who the Estonian police have identified as a “security threat”. In this event, according to the SDE leader, just one-third of Russians would be entitled to vote.
Municipal elections in Estonia are set for October 2025, and the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the former Soviet Republic earlier this year “a mini-totalitarian regime.”
The country has strongly backed Ukraine, providing it with over $500,000 in military aid and advocating for tougher sanctions on Moscow.
When Estonia attained independence in 1991, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians residing in the former Soviet republic were denied citizenship. This motivated many holders of so-called Estonian alien passports to finally seek Russian citizenship while still in the country.
Estonia charges journalist with treason for working with Russian media
In August, Estonia accused former Sputnik reporter Svetlana Burtseva of treason, breaching sanctions on Russia, and writing a book on “hybrid warfare” that allegedly challenged and disreputed state institutions.
Burtseva used to work with Sputnik Estonia until the country banned it. She later allegedly moved on to work for Baltnews, an information resource surrounding political activity in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Estonia claimed Baltnews was under the sanctioned Rossiya Segodnya media group.
Bursteva’s “texts were published in online news serving the interests of Russian propaganda,” State Prosecutor Eneli Laurits told state broadcaster ERR following the case hearing at the Harju County Court.
Prosecutors say that the reporter continued working for Russian media outlets and was the author of a book titled “Hybrid War for Peace” under the pseudonym L.B. Svet. “The content of the book belittles the Republic of Estonia and is thus aimed at dividing Estonian society and discrediting the Republic of Estonia and its institutions,” Laurits alleged, as cited by the newspaper Postimees.
She was also accused of enrolling in a media training program at the Sevastopol State University in Russia, supervised by the head of a private intelligence company registered in Russia and a former FSB counterintelligence officer, and of aiming to prepare “international media workers and analysts who could be on the front lines of Russia’s fight against hybrid threats.”