Vseviov rejects rumors of an imminent Russian attack on NATO

Rumors of an imminent Russian attack on NATO and the Baltic states are unfounded, Estonian Foreign Ministry Chancellor Jonatan Vseviov told ERR. He said there is no direct military threat at present and urged the West to focus on strengthening its real defence readiness instead of panicking.

European Union countries are extending sanctions against Moscow, but pressure from several member states will remove Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the bloc’s blacklist. This means the two may soon be able to operate more freely in Europe.

Vseviov said the decision had involved choosing between a bad option and an even worse one.

“For these two individuals, it is certainly a failure, but that failure was the price that had to be paid to keep the remaining 3,000 names under sanctions,” Vseviov said. “Estonia naturally opposed removing these two names from the list, but as in real life, we are not choosing between good and bad options, but between bad and even worse options.”

By Tuesday evening, Estonia had added Usmanov and Fridman to its own sanctions list. Vseviov said the positive aspect was that sanctions previously renewed every six months would now remain in force for three years, providing greater certainty and avoiding a similar dispute in the near future.

“This is quite an important victory. It does not mean that our battles are over. We will immediately begin processing the next sanctions,” Vseviov said, adding that Kaja Kallas had proposed adding about 1,600 more people to the lists.

“I have no doubt that these battles will sometimes be just as dirty as they were this time. But we will not give in and will go as far as possible,” he said. “The main goal is to constantly raise the cost of aggression.”

Vseviov said the broader objective was to inflict costs on Russia and increase the price of its aggression. Allowing the EU decision to fail could have resulted in all 3,000 sanctioned individuals being removed from the list, rather than only two.

He said the countries that had demanded political exemptions would face further questions about their decisions. Vseviov was also critical of Russia’s elections held over the weekend, saying they were as far removed from genuine elections as possible, while the country’s leadership had worked intensively to ensure the result matched the planned outcome.