The European Parliament expressed its full support and solidarity with Estonia in a resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority (460-31-38) in Strasbourg today. MEPs condemned Russia's belligerent rhetoric and its failure to protect Estonia's embassy in Moscow, while also calling for reconciliation with the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia.
Parliament expressed its support and solidarity vis à vis Estonia, and noted that it regarded "attacks targeting one of the smallest EU Member States as a test case for the European Union’s solidarity." MEPs considered "inadmissible the various attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Estonia by the Russian authorities, and reminded Russian authorities that their "indiscriminate and hostile rhetoric" would impact EU-Russian relations.
The House also called on the Russian government to respect the Vienna Convention on the protection of diplomats, expressing its alarm at the "inadequate protection of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow," and condemned Russia's use of economic pressure on Estonia as an instrument of foreign policy. It also called on the Commission and Member States to assist in the analyses of cyber-attacks on Estonian websites, and to present a study on how such attacks can be addresses at a European level.
The resolution also calls for an "Estonian domestic dialogue," which could "bridge existing gaps between the different communities" and "create new opportunities to integrate Russian-speaking Estonians," as recently suggested by Estonian President and former MEP Toomas Hendrik Ilves. It also asks the Russian government to engage in "an open and unbiased dialogue [...] on the history of the 20th century," especially the crimes against humanity perpetrated by totalitarian communism.
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