The Baltic States and Poland, the countries bordering Russia, should convey their experience with Moscow to the rest of the Western nations, which will allow for developing joint actions against the aggressor state.
This opinion was expressed by the Estonian expert on social stability Dmytro Teperyk, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.
He noted differences in the understanding of the situation by countries located next to Russia and those far from it. “It would be possible to bring the positions together with a single strong, symbolic step, such as nominating someone from NATO’s eastern flank to the position of Secretary General. There were a lot of discussions on this topic, various candidacies from Estonia, Poland, Latvia, and Romania were put forward. So far, this has not happened, because our main, ‘big’ allies did not want this. But this does not mean that we should be offended by something or someone,” Teperyk noted.
In his opinion, this should encourage further action. The Baltic States and Poland should once again convey to their partners the history of their relations with Russia, and now, after 2022, together with the Ukrainians, describe the current experience of Ukraine. At the same time, “it is necessary to clearly and understandably explain that the world has changed irrevocably, the former Russia, with which it was convenient to cooperate and do business, is gone and will never be back again,” the expert emphasized.
“And if so, then for the common good and security, it is necessary to listen more to those who had various experiences of communicating with different kinds of Russia (the Russian Empire, the USSR, the current Russian Federation). These are the Baltic states, Ukraine, Poland, and Finland, which border it. Not all countries had such experience, therefore our positions, our opinions should be important for our partners and should be heard,” the expert emphasized.
At the same time, he said it was a good step in the right direction that Kaja Kallas (High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and Andrius Kubilius (European Commissioner for Defense and Space) took important positions in the EU leadership. “This shows that now the headache and the main anxiety of the EU is in the East. This is Russia and the war it unleashed against Ukraine… That is why politicians from the Baltic States, who deeply understand the problem and can offer non-trivial solutions, took these posts. At the same time, being in Brussels, they have the right to speak and act on behalf of the entire European Union,” the Estonian expert noted.
As Ukrinform reported, the Minister of Defense of Estonia, Hanno Pevkur, said Western partners should increase military aid to Ukraine so that it could not just keep waging a war, but prevail.
