Estonia’s longest-serving presidential aide to leave with Karis

Estonia’s longest-serving presidential aide-de-camp, Rein Vaabel, will leave office when President Alar Karis does, ERR reported. Vaabel has served three presidents for a total of 10 years.

The Pealtnägija programme followed Vaabel at work and found that presidential aides-de-camp are more than smartly dressed, upright adjutants. They also safeguard the president’s secrets.

Vaabel, who is 60, took part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, where he saw the aftermath of genocide. He later served on several missions in the Middle East, but considers his service at Kadriorg the peak of his career.

“Going back to 2012, when General Terras said that I was going to Kadriorg, I said, ‘General, I had already planned to go.’ In fact, things had gone so far that I was about to leave for another mission to Afghanistan, as a staff officer. He said, ‘No, your mission will be in Kadriorg,’” Vaabel recalled.

Vaabel, who comes from Valga County, is the only person to have served three Estonian presidents: Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Kersti Kaljulaid and Alar Karis.

The president has two aides-de-camp at a time. They accompany the head of state virtually everywhere, taking turns on visits in Estonia and abroad. Their distinctive uniforms and shoulder cords often put them in photographs, but few people know what their work involves.

“You were the first person to wake the president in the morning, and the last to say goodnight to him. Then you went to sleep. When the president woke up, you had already eaten, because you never know what the president plans to do,” said Sven Liister, who served as aide-de-camp to Ilves.

“Basically, we live according to the head of state’s schedule. Of course, we have our own lives, but when we are on duty and working, we follow what the head of state is doing. Sometimes his spouse as well,” Vaabel said.

Vaabel and Liister, who has since left the position, are two of roughly 20 aides-de-camp who served Estonia’s head of state before and after the war, according to military historian Hellar Lill.

Lill said the most prominent figure in history was Herbert Grabbi, aide-de-camp to head of state Konstantin Päts. His influence was greater than that of aides today, Lill said.

“The role of the aide-de-camp was certainly more varied and diverse at that time. The president’s office had only 10 employees. The aide-de-camp performed all protocol duties; in today’s sense, the president did not have a head of protocol. He arranged the president’s meetings, managed his daily schedule and travel plans, and accompanied him to all meetings both abroad and on domestic visits,” Lill said.

“As he was very close to the president, always following him like a shadow, he certainly had influence over the president,” said Lill, director of the Estonian War Museum.

Lennart Meri restored the position after Estonia regained independence and slightly expanded the aide-de-camp’s duties. When office staff suggested that one aide might be enough for a small country, Meri insisted on having two.

“The younger aide-de-camp must be able to deal with everything. But the senior aide-de-camp, if I need to get in touch with, for example, Peter himself, must be able to do that,” Lill recalled Meri saying.