Over a year ago, when the conflict between Russia and Georgia started, from Cafebabel.com columns we accused Postimees – the leading Estonian daily, of committing a journalistic suicide by publishing some “plans” of an eventual Russian attack to Estonia.
Going into quite deep details, the article we deeply criticized discussed how and where we should expect the Russian troops to come from, letting thousands of readers imagine that, after all, a Russian attack might have happened from one moment to another.
Convinced that this was unlikely to happen, Cafebabel.com organized immediately a public debate on the issue managing to invite, within couple of days, representatives from NATO, Estonian politicians, Georgian diplomats and other key people we thought it could have been useful to listen to for cooling some fears off.
Some time later, while giving a lecture at the Estonian National Defence College, the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves confirmed the impressions we had at that time, saying that Estonia might be living one of the most secure times of its history thanks to the current geopolitical system.
“In the context of the current world order, the structure of the international relations today, there is no reason to doubt the efficiency of NATO and the Article 5,” said the President as Eesti Paevaleht reported. “It worked in a situation of a considerably higher international tensions – during the Cold War era and hence there is no cause for nervousness in this respect today,”.
The President explained that seen the current world order and the development of international relations, it is impossible even to understand how – especially in some not top-quality media – the discussion about the possibility of a Russian threat is treated as a serious danger for the country.
“By today, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is history,” emphasised the head of State. “We have to know our history, but we cannot live in history,” he said, noting that the world today cannot be compared to that of the 1930s.
Ilves spoke clearly about Russia explaining that it does not represent a real threat for Estonia as its EU and NATO memberships act as perfect guarantees for the national security.
“It is much more important for us to care about the success of NATO and of European Union than get irritated over slightly provocative news of relatively small significance from Russia,” said Ilves in a move that, probably, it could cover a significant interest if red together with his will of participating to 9th of May celebration in Moscow – if officially invited.
