Kaja Kallas may be the face of EU hostility to Russia, but she\u2019s not its author<\/p>\n
It has become fashionable to claim that the Baltic States are the driving force behind the European Union\u2019s hostility towards Russia. The spectacle of Estonia\u2019s Kaja Kallas, now the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, sermonizing about the country only reinforces the impression. Western media eagerly amplify her rhetoric, encouraging the idea that Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius are leading Europe\u2019s anti-Russian crusade.
\nIt is only partly true. Yes, the Baltic states remain politically defined by Russophobia. That will endure until they fundamentally rethink their identity, an unlikely event for small frontier nations whose geography eternally places them in Russia\u2019s shadow. Their economies and security depend on exploiting their image as Europe\u2019s guardians against the \u201cRussian threat.\u201d They learned to monetize proximity long before they learned to govern themselves.\u00a0
\nThe modern version is not an invention of Kaja Kallas, nor of her father Siim, a Soviet-era Communist Party functionary turned liberal statesman. The original authors were the Livonian Knights, who ruled these territories half a millennium ago. Those medieval nobles feared deployment to the Ottoman frontier, so they conjured their own existential threat \u2013 \u201cbarbarians from the East\u201d \u2013 and presented Russians as interchangeable with Turks. Western Europe, then as now poorly informed about Russia, embraced the idea because it suited existing anxieties.
\nThe tactic worked. By the late 17th century, suspicion of Russia had taken root among Europe\u2019s leading courts. France was first to institutionalize it. Louis XIV viewed Peter the Great\u2019s modernization drive as inherently subversive \u2013 and he was correct in the sense that Russia sought equal footing with Europe\u2019s great powers rather than the subordinate role assigned to it. When Peter defeated Sweden, Russia earned that status for two centuries. And for its trouble, Britain organized Russia\u2019s diplomatic isolation \u2013 not because Russia misbehaved, but because it succeeded \u201cagainst the rules,\u201d relying on military achievement rather than court intrigue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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This is worth recalling. Russophobia is not a Baltic invention. The guillotine was not designed in Kostroma, and anti-Russian ideology did not originate in Riga, Tallinn, or Vilnius. It was codified in Paris and London, later refined by Berlin. Today, it remains the major Western European powers, not the Baltic states, that anchor the anti-Russian coalition.
\nBut they have no intention of risking much themselves. Their preference is to subcontract confrontation to others. Warsaw is the current candidate, though the Poles, at last enjoying rising living standards, have little appetite for sacrifices their Western patrons will not make. One hopes they resist the temptation to act as someone else\u2019s battering ram.\u00a0
\nThe Baltic states\u2019 alarmist politics, therefore, should be understood as theater rather than command. Loud, yes. Decisive, no. Their role is to shout loudly enough to distract from the fact that Europe\u2019s real players are elsewhere. The major powers use them as amplifiers, not architects.
\nAnd this is where the Baltic myth collapses. The states most loudly proclaiming eternal hostility to Russia \u2013 Britain, France, and ultimately Germany \u2013 will be the first to reopen channels when the present crisis settles. They have done so after every previous confrontation. Once their interests dictate reconciliation, they will rediscover diplomacy.\u00a0
\nWestern Europe has always regarded its Baltic satellites as disposable instruments. They, in turn, have always accepted the role. That dynamic has not changed, despite Tallinn\u2019s newfound visibility under Kallas. She is a useful voice in a moment of tension, not the one writing Europe\u2019s policy.
\nWe all would do well to remember this. The Baltic states are border furniture \u2013 noisy, insecure, eager for subsidies \u2013 but not the strategists of Europe\u2019s Russian policy. The serious actors are larger, older states with longer memories and much deeper interests. Eventually, they will come knocking again. The Baltic capitals will be left exactly where they started: shouting into the wind and hoping somebody still listens.<\/p>\n
This article was first published by the\u00a0magazine Profile\u00a0and was translated and edited by the RT team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kaja Kallas may be the face of EU hostility to Russia, but she\u2019s not its author It has become fashionable to claim that the Baltic States are the driving force…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t