August 31 fits decently into the list of important dates that have influenced Estonia, with for example February 24, November 16 or August 20. Because it was on August 31, 1994 that Russian foreign troops left Estonia as a shadow of the Second World War. They had to go so that we would be truly free, also in choosing our foreign and security policy future.
I bow to President Lennart Meri, Prime Minister Mart Laari, many of our diplomats, politicians and civil servants, whose persistence, ingenuity, courage and sometimes going against the wind culminated in the Meri-Yeltsin agreements and the departure of Russian troops.
After us, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine remained. All of these are different stories and reasons, but the result is the same – Russia uses its military bases as handcuffs for foreign policy shackles of these countries or even direct military aggression.
Estonia knew what it wanted and why, and we had influential friends. Among them, for sure, Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and, of course, US President Bill Clinton. With their help, we broke the Russian resistance piece by piece. Jüri Luik has aptly said that the West largely supported us out of a desire to show the new Europe and the end of the Cold War, because the strategically insignificant Russian troops were then in Estonia only to mark the Soviet footprint on this territory.
Truly, Russia at that time, many times more free and democratic than today, did not want to set foot here – for itself, from the sphere of influence in the near abroad. Therefore, I do not agree with those critics who accused President Meri that there was no need to conclude any agreements with Yeltsin, it was irresponsible for military pensioners to stay in Estonia, and the Russian troops would have left here anyway.
Anyway, few things happen by themselves in relations between countries. Or really, nothing happens there anyway.
The departure of the Russian troops was not the end point of security for Estonia. This gave the opportunity to move forward in the direction of securing one’s own security and independence, to comprehensively integrate with the Western world, the European Union and NATO. Let’s ask now, would these organizations that protect the well-being and security of Europe take into their family a country where even a few hundred Russian soldiers are stationed? That would be out of the question. And it would then be a completely different Estonia.
I also need to explain the title of today’s debate – “Expelled Forever”. This stems from the words of President Meri on August 31, 1994, that from today there will be no more foreign troops on Estonian soil and that from today it depends only on our own intelligence, unity and a sober look at the future, so that it will remain like this forever.
This is how Lennart Meri, who worked here in the Kadrioru building for nine years, formulated the task for us, how to ensure that the Russian force was expelled from Estonia forever. A task we now happily complete every day.
The President of the Republic on the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of Russian troops, Kadriorg on August 30, 2024
2024-08-30 13:33:39
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