Russia's Recent Clash with Estonia. What Happened?

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

"Russia once again embarrasses itself, this time on the Estonian border. We'll look into what exactly happened on the 9th of May between these countries."

[Your Old Comrade]

Estonia is a NATO-partner, so this will be a storm in a tea cup. But Russia's level of corruption is... almost African. The EU should have added those 1.2 mil dollars to Narva's budget instead of wasting it on Ivangorod (which is the responsibility of the Russian government, not the EU and Estonia). I can only imagine what they would have built with that!

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Estonia is a NATO-partner, so this will be a storm in a tea cup.

I don't know if you watched the video to the end, the funniest part was the one where he talks about the European Union giving funds to the city of Narva and also Ivangorod (and they allocated substantially more money to the Russian city) to build a promenade along the river. The promenade they built in Narva is eight times bigger even though they received less money than the one in Ivangorod, all that money vanished in typical Russian corruption. Moral of the story, the inhabitants of Ivangorod watched the 9th May concert boasting Russia's "pride" in the mud and dirt, while those of Narva watched it in a nice promenade

Edit: I've seen now that you edited your post.

[Russki]

I don't know if you watched the video to the end, the funniest part was the one where he talks about the European Union giving funds to the city of Narva and also Ivangorod (and they allocated substantially more money to the Russian city) to build a promenade along the river. The promenade they built in Narva is eight times bigger even though they received less money than the one in Ivangorod, all that money vanished in typical Russian corruption. Moral of the story, the inhabitants of Ivangorod watched the 9th May concert boasting Russia's "pride" in the mud and dirt, while those of Narva watched it in a nice promenade

The Russian people are aware of the rampant corruption in their country.

[Your Old Comrade]

I don't know if you watched the video to the end, the funniest part was the one where he talks about the European Union giving funds to the city of Narva and also Ivangorod (and they allocated substantially more money to the Russian city) to build a promenade along the river. The promenade they built in Narva is eight times bigger even though they received less money than the one in Ivangorod, all that money vanished in typical Russian corruption. Moral of the story, the inhabitants of Ivangorod watched the 9th May concert boasting Russia's "pride" in the mud and dirt, while those of Narva watched it in a nice promenade

Edit: I've seen now that you edited your post.

It's incredible. And if you look on Google Maps, you see that they are updating the streets in Narva's city centre. Ripping out all the old Soviet shit and replacing it with modern asphalt and new lamp posts.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

It's incredible. And if you look on Google Maps, you see that they are updating the streets in Narva's city centre. Ripping out all the old Soviet shit and replacing it with modern asphalt and new lamp posts.

Yeah. I've been to Narva (and all Estonian counties with the exception of the islands) but it was over a decade ago. Most of its inhabitants are Russian. I am sure it has changed dramatically since then, Estonia has been developing rapidly.

[gixajo]

The Russian people are aware of the rampant corruption in their country.

Are you saying that you let them steal you because you like it?

Is it part of the traditional Russian moral values ​​that you defend and that you want to help impose on the rest of Europe?

[Your Old Comrade]

Yeah. I've been to Narva (and all Estonian counties with the exception of the islands) but it was over a decade ago. Most of its inhabitants are Russian. I am sure it has changed dramatically since then, Estonia has been developing rapidly.

I actually think that the policy towards the Russian-speaking minority isn't a bright move. It only alienates them, and it would be much smarter to make them full citizens. As for the Russian language: they should try to sow division between the Russians in Estonia and Russia itself by declaring Estonia bilingual and by adopting the Latin alphabet for the version of Russian used in Estonia - banning pro-Kremlin organisations but replacing them with patriotic associations for Russian Estonians and setting up Russian-language Estonian newspapers and TV- stations which (if the publications destined for Russians in Russia are in Cyrillic) will easily penetrate parts of Russia as well. If Russian-speakers have full rights, they would likely stop looking at Russia altogether.

In case those don't exist yet: Time for a BBC, Euronews and RFE Russian section.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I actually think that the policy towards the Russian-speaking minority isn't a bright move. It only alienates them, and it would be much smarter to make them full citizens. As for the Russian language: they should try to sow division between the Russians in Estonia and Russia itself by declaring Estonia bilingual and by adopting the Latin alphabet for the version of Russian used in Estonia - banning pro-Kremlin organisations but replacing them with patriotic associations for Russian Estonians and setting up Russian-language Estonian newspapers and TV- stations which (if the publications destined for Russians in Russia are in Cyrillic) will easily penetrate parts of Russia as well. If Russian-speakers have full rights, they would likely stop looking at Russia altogether.

It is not easy to deal with this problem because about 30% of Estonia's population is Russian (official statistics say it is less because they have already granted citizenship to many Russians, contrary to what you think). Declaring Estonia bilingual is counterproductive to the integration of Russians because Estonian language is spoken by just over a million inhabitants and they have several laws protecting it (even the names of McDonalds hamburgers there are translated into Estonian) and young Russians who were born in Estonia usually know how to speak the language, it's the older ones from the Soviet era who usually have trouble with the language (not an easy language by the way). Just give it another generation or two and probably by then everyone of Russian descent will know how to speak Estonian fluently. Russians are proud to be Russians but the gap in terms of opportunities, quality of life and rights between Estonia and Russia has been widening immensely in recent years and the trend is increasing, so I do not believe that Russian minorities have much interest in becoming an integral part of Russia again. They can easily cross the bridge between Narva and Ivangorod (and often do) with a Russian passport and compare.

[Aila]

I consider myself now as “cured”.

For many decades our family along with the township poured their savings on the rural Russian Karelian areas for support.

Not our responsibility, rather a fool’s compassion – (but we couldn’t help it).