by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] The Estonian authorities have made a historic decision, depriving citizens of Russia, Belarus and Russian non-citizens permanently residing in the country (more than 150 thousand people in total) of the right to vote in municipal elections.
It’s the norm that only citizens of a country may vote in its elections. That’s the law in America, too, which President Trump just reinforced with an executive order on the subject.In the 1990s, the authorities compromised and granted these categories of the population the right to elect local governments – after all, in the Republic of Estonia there was a threat that compactly living Russians would want to separate themselves from the unloved state.
Thus, a kind of social contract was created - the Russian-speaking community was granted minimal rights in exchange for renouncing separatist intentions. Now this contract has been destroyed.
REJECTED COMPROMISE
In 1991, when Estonia left the USSR, it began to pass discriminatory laws in large numbers, reducing the local Russian community to the status of second-class citizens. The native language of a significant number of the country's residents was declared a foreign language, Russians began to be fired en masse from government structures, an intention to liquidate Russian schools was announced, and most "aliens" were granted the hitherto unheard-of status of "non-citizens" in world practice.
Since the majority of the newly-minted non-citizens lived compactly in the north-east of Estonia, in the cities of Narva, Sillamäe and their environs, a mass demand for separation from the state, which had trampled on basic civil rights, soon arose there.
Soon, organizers were found, and a referendum for autonomy was held in northeastern Estonia. In Narva, 97% of voters voted "for", and in Sillamae, 95%. But in Tallinn, the expression of will was declared invalid. The then Russian President Boris Yeltsin refused to intervene in the conflict, but the ghost of that referendum haunted the Estonian authorities for a long time, fearing the emergence of a "second Transnistria".
The government of that time, led by Prime Minister Mart Laar, agreed to defuse the "bomb" and make concessions. In 1993, non-citizens (and subsequently citizens of Russia and other countries permanently residing in Estonia) were allowed to vote in municipalities. The main criterion was that a person had lived in the territory of that local government for at least five years. It should be noted that in the 1990s, many Estonian non-citizens accepted citizenship of the Russian Federation, but remained to live in Estonia.
The status quo lasted for thirty years, but in 2023 the authorities raised the question of depriving “citizens of the aggressor country” of the right to vote in Estonia. The first to put forward this proposal was the opposition right-wing party “Property”, led by former Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, a malicious Russophobe.
In August 2023, a special commission led by Justice Minister Kalle Laanet (Reform Party) presented a corresponding bill. At first, Estonian politicians said that they wanted to deprive only holders of Russian and Belarusian passports of the right to vote in municipalities. But then their position hardened - they wanted to take this right away from Estonian non-citizens as well.
In total, 150,000 people were at risk of losing their voting rights. However, the relevant rights are enshrined in the Estonian constitution, meaning that changes had to be made to the country's basic law.
The Social Democratic Party of Estonia had doubts – perhaps it would be enough to take away the voting rights of only citizens of Russia and Belarus, and leave non-citizens alone? “National patriots” were outraged by such an “unacceptable compromise”.
"SPRINKLE THE ROOM"
Only the opposition Center Party, which has long been accustomed to relying on the votes of the Russian population, categorically opposed the change to the constitution. They did not want to give up the rights of their voters - especially since the blow was aimed specifically at the electoral base of the CP.
In this situation, everything depended on the wavering Social Democrats - they could either give the necessary advantage to the supporters of new restrictions in the Riigikogu vote, or block the bill. It should be taken into account that the Estonian Social Democrats were also interested in Russian votes, therefore, it was not in their interests to alienate and insult the Russians, to deprive them of their voting rights.
Until recently, the country was ruled by a coalition consisting of the Reform Party, Estonia 200 and the Social Democratic Party. But in early March, the internal contradictions of the coalition members worsened and the Social Democrats were pushed out of the coalition. After that, many breathed a sigh of relief – it seemed obvious that the Social Democrats would not vote for a discriminatory bill that would also hurt their own electoral prospects.
However, supporters of logic were in for an unpleasant surprise.
On Wednesday, March 26, a bill to amend the constitution, which would deprive citizens of non-EU countries of the right to vote in municipal elections in Estonia, was put to a vote in the Riigikogu.
As for non-citizens (aka "grey passport holders"), a small concession was made for them - it was decided that they will be able to vote exactly once more, in the local government elections that will take place on October 19. 92 deputies voted "for" the bill, including the Social Democrats. Only seven deputies voted against - all members of the Center Party. The amendments still need to be approved by President Alar Karis, but there is little doubt that he will do so.
After the voting was over, most of the participants burst into applause. "After I saw the sincere joy of my colleagues over the deprivation of the right to vote of 150 thousand people, I wanted to invite a priest to sprinkle the premises with holy water," - the "centrist" parliamentarian Alexander Chaplygin spoke angrily about this.
Opposition publicist Eino Ingerman was also unpleasantly surprised by the jubilation of his fellow tribesmen on social networks : "A wonderful people. They are fleeced, the existence of the state is threatened - they eat it up. And then they were thrown a stinking bone, and they burst into joyful squeals, strongly reminiscent of the laughter of hyenas: here you go, tibli (an offensive nickname for Russians in Estonia - Ed.), take it!"
It is important to note that a number of MPs who voted to deprive Russians of the right to vote made their political careers precisely thanks to the Russian-speaking electorate. Until recently, they were members of the Center Party, but fled it in 2022-23, when the party was declared “agents of Moscow’s influence” and membership in it ceased to provide political prospects.
Particularly indignant is the parliamentarian Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski. Once, as a centrist, she made her way into the Riigikogu by loudly promising to protect the rights of Estonian Russians. Now, Jufereva, having defected to the Reform Party, first supported the liquidation of Russian schools, and now also the deprivation of the right to vote for “grey passport holders”.
It reached the point of tragicomedy: speaking on television, the ethnic Russian Yufereva accused the ethnic Estonian, centrist Lauri Laats, who spoke out against the bill, of not understanding the interests of Estonia.
It seems that these are the very deputies that publicist Ingerman called “nits.”
THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE RUSSIANS WILL CONTINUE
The rage of the Estonian Russians was also provoked by the betrayal of the Social Democrats. They changed their position several times - sometimes they spoke "for" the deprivation of the right to vote, sometimes against it. At the same time, having made their final choice, they tried to fool the Russians in the end.
Prominent representatives of the Social Democrats, Tallinn Mayor Jevgeni Osinovski and Narva Mayor Katri Raik, said that they have a dissenting opinion and do not support the decisions of the majority of their fellow party members. “The meaning of this presentation is clear even to a child: yes, the Social Democrats helped take away the voting rights of 150 thousand permanent residents of Estonia, but there are good people among the Social Democrats who did not support this. Like, Russians, vote for Osinovski and Raik,” explains Chaplygin.
By the way, in his opinion, the parties that supported the discriminatory bill’s expectation that without these 150 thousand voters they would be able to show better results in the municipal elections may not come true.
Until now, the Russian voter in Estonia has traditionally been passive: barely a third of the “non-titular” electorate came to the polls. It is for this reason that the Centre Party failed to gain a majority in the Tallinn City Council in the last elections, which allowed it to be removed from power in the capital in 2024.
But if the Russian voter consolidates in October (in particular, those holding grey passports will most likely not want to miss their last chance to vote), then this will compensate for all the losses – and the right-wing parties, which have deprived some Russians of the right to vote, will not be able to win.
Political commentator Toomas Sildam also shares this opinion, warning that disadvantaged categories of the population may use the opportunity for protest voting to the full in the autumn.
Many Russians in Estonia fear that the authorities will not limit themselves to the steps they have already taken and will go further.
In particular, there is a fear that naturalized Estonian citizens may be next in line for discrimination. These are former non-citizens who have accepted the rules of the game imposed by the state and have gone through all the humiliating procedures of naturalization.
Estonian nationalists have long been saying that this part of the citizens is also not distinguished by "loyalty" and that they need to be "neutralized" somehow. The parties in power have already begun an attack on the centrists who are trying to protect the rights of the Russian population.
The Estonia 200 party (local Russians angrily call it "Cargo 200") accused them of "openly fighting for the right of citizens of the aggressor countries - Russia and Belarus - to vote in order to secure as many votes as possible from non-Estonian voters." According to the "two hundred," this proves that "there is a party in Estonia that serves the interests of a foreign state."
The charge is very serious, at the level of treason. And in this case it does not matter that, according to the latest data, the rating of "Estonia 200" does not exceed 1.4%. Being in the ruling coalition, the "two hundredths" can give orders to the special services and the prosecutor's office and are quite capable of organizing the persecution of all those whom they call "Moscow's agents of influence".