Põlluaasa’s posting caused a storm in the Russian media

A Social Media posting by the Speaker of Riigikogu, spoke of Russia’s non-recognition of the Tartu Peace Treaty and the continued occupation of 5% of Estonia’s territory by their eastern neighbour, attracted the greatest response in Russian media in recent years, where Henn Põlluaas was opposed by an unprecedented amount of opinion in the Russian media.

Põlluaasa’s posting was echoed by Konstantin Kosatšjov, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Grigori Telnov, REN TV journalist, Leonid Slutski, Press representative of the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, Head editor of Regnum, Modest Kolerov, head of the analytical section of Regnum, Juri Banarchik, Chairman of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Dmitri Novikov, Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of National Sovereignty, Andrei Klimov, President of the Russian Baltic Studies Association, professor Nikolai Meževitš,Ph.D., Director of the Second European Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Beljajev, Professor emeritus of Tallinn University,  Rein Müllerson, Member of the Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Anton Morozov, Director of the Russian Military History Association, Maria Zahharova, Representative of the Republic of Crimea to the Federation Council, Olga Kovitidi, Member of the Russian Federation Council, Chairman of the Russian Crimean community, Sergei Tsekov, the Russian embassy in Tallinn, Chairman of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Aleksei Puškov, and Vladimir Žirinovski, leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party and many others.

The plurality of opinion multipliers also brought to the table all sorts of accusations and Kremlin propaganda narratives used in stories against Estonia. There are accusations of deliberate degradation of relations, glorification of Nazism and Russophobia, with a number of statements aimed at breaking the unity of NATO and the European Union and simply attempts to ridicule Estonia.

For example, Juri Barantšik said that Estonia could get back the holes in donuts, but not Russian territory. Vladimir Žirinovski however suggested restoring the Uusikaupunki Peace treaty of 1721, where Sweden surrendered to Russia several areas of its territory, including Estonia. Modest Kolerov threatened in his statement that any territorial demands on Russia should be followed by harsh and total sanctions. Maria Zakharova of the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Estonian leadership of making increasingly provocative and absurd statements instead of normalizing relations.

The above is a vivid example of how the Russian media can make a single subject big and loud with the help of numerous spokespersons.

Photo: screenshot from regnum.ru