Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, condemned Russia’s “usual intimidation tactics” on Tuesday after she, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of Latvia’s parliament were targeted by Russia’s interior ministry, AFP reported.

Kaya CallasPhoto: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Editorial/Profimedia
  • “The actions of the Russian Federation are not surprising, as this is their usual intimidation tactic,” Kallas condemned in a statement, vowing to continue to support war-torn Ukraine and fight “Russian propaganda.”
  • “Throughout history, Russia has masked its repression behind so-called law enforcement agencies. I know this from my family history. When my grandmother and mother were deported to Siberia, the KGB issued an arrest warrant,” she emphasized.
  • “The Kremlin now hopes that this move will help silence me and others, but that will not happen,” Kallas said in a post on social media platform X, continuing:
  • “On the contrary. I will continue to strongly support Ukraine. I will continue to support the growth of Europe’s defense capabilities,” she said.

Kallas, Estonian State Secretary Taimar Peterkop, Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairis and about 60 of the 100 members of the previous Latvian parliament, whose term expires in November 2022, have been declared wanted by Russia in a criminal dossier.

Kairis told Reuters that the arrest warrant “means that we acted proactively and with principle.”

The press secretary of the Kremlin, Dmytro Peskov, said that the Prime Minister of Estonia is being prosecuted for “insulting historical memory”.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported that the Baltic officials were charged with “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers”, for which the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for five years of imprisonment.

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