Estonian and Russia Against Drugs
As immediately reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Estonia and Russia might be willing to stop hating each other and start co operating in the field of drug trafficking.
***Article updated 30.11.09***
No, it does not mean that the two countries are setting up a plan to become a superpower of drugs and use cocaine export to save the economy but it instead means that the two troublesome neighbor seem to have found a common pattern in the framework of fighting against drugs as the Estonian Minister of Interior – Marko Pomerantz, and the Head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service – Viktor Ivanov signed some extra provisions to the agreement that links the two countries since 2006.
If Ivanov commented by saying that the Russian-Estonian cooperation against drug trafficking has been fruitful in the past, Pomerantz words should make some people think.
“Both Estonia and Russia continue to consider the battle against drug crime very important, and that both countries are ready to develop cooperation”, he said.
“Why can’t we see such a cooperation in other fields?”, we ask. Hoping that someone will give us a real answer.
***Update***
According with Tuuli Härson, Senior Specialist of Public Relations of the Estonian Police Board, “Cooperation between the two neighboring states is essential in fighting international drug related crime. The current visit from the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Narcotics Traffic Control confirms that the preceding cooperation and the jointly achieved results are highly valued by both parties”.
The cooperation between Estonian Central Criminal Police and their colleagues from the Russian police forces has become more frequent and efficient in the recent years.
“From our experience we can say that drugs move across the border in both directions. For example fentanyl that causes tens of deadly overdoses every year is brought to Estonia mostly over the Russian border. Estonia on the other hand is a transit country for ecstasy and hashish moving to Russia”, Härson said to EFP.
Please prove somehow empirically that Estonia pathologically hates Russia. Does Estonia hate Latvia? Does Estonia hate Italy? I submit we do not "hate Russia". There must be another factor.
Soviet Russia occupied us. Russia traumatized us and victimized us. When Russia turns normal – that is to say she becomes democratic and nonbelligerent, when she finally examines her past and the harm she has done to others, when she apologizes and tries to sincerely set things right, will there be decent prospects for normalization of the relationship. Why on earth would little Estonia be interested in belligerent relations with her huge neighbor?
To me, to start an article this way – "willing to stop hating each other" is smug and condescending. It is a "know it all statement" made by someone who seems to feel superior – chiding two quarreling children.
In Europe, the Church is sitting by in silence while an ugly scandal deepens in Ireland. The scandal of priest pedophiles who abused children in their congregations and schools. Would you suggest the abused children are bad because they now dislike the specific priests who did them harm? Is the Auschwitz victim bad because he or she does not like the concentration camp guard? When Russia apologizes to the Baltic States, the basis will have been created for enmity to slowly begin to end. Certainly Giovanni would not be angry at the Ethiopians for not being love with the Italians during the first half of the last century?
When damage has been done, there are normal human courses to be followed for relations to be normalized. When a man comes home on Saturday morning having drunk away the family's rent money, he cannot expect to do this over and over again and have the relationship last. It is only when he apologizes and makes amends and stops repeating himself on Friday night that his wife and children will want to continue with him.
To me, the whole premise of this article is a little bizarre. Estonia and Russia work together successfully at relatively low adminsitrative levels all the time, bei it in respect to drugs or fishing rights on Lake Peipus (Peipsi) or border arrangemens and a variety of other things. There are a ton of areas where Estonia and Russia cooperate. The premises of the very article or commentary are flawed.
Thank you for your comment Juri: you gave me a great chance to go more into details of what I mean and I appreciate this as the will you had of saying your view on the issue.
"Please prove somehow empirically that Estonia pathologically hates Russia. Does Estonia hate Latvia? Does Estonia hate Italy? I submit we do not "hate Russia". There must be another factor."
The "hate" part was obviously a provocation – There is something else indeed, but the problem is that not many people are working on solving it.
"when she apologizes and tries to sincerely set things right, will there be decent prospects for normalization of the relationship."
Yes and no. History goes on and things can be changed even before someone say "I am sorry." Plus, allow me to say it, Estonia is not doing much to progress in this sense. You might say "Why little Estonia should do anything?"
I will answer you then "Because the superiority of a person comes out when this one is able to not get to the same level of the one and keep doing what it is right.".
"In Europe…century" I know this part of the story. When I first came here to Estonia – place I love, cause I would not be here otherwise – I heard it a lot. "Why do you want to talk about problems here, everyone has something. Do you think Italy is better?
When I lived in my home country., which was almost a decade ago, I used to be the same critical towards there. And the same applied to Belgium, Portugal and France before starting with Estonia. Every time I see something wrong – I want to be able to say it. And I do not honestly care if something bad happens also elsewhere.
"When a man comes home on Saturday morning having drunk away the family's rent money, he cannot expect to do this over and over again and have the relationship last."
More than true. But, let me ask this, wouldn't it be easier if also the family would start supporting him on his change? One-way-efforts are rarely successful ones.
"To me, the whole premise of this article is a little bizarre. " Fine, you definitely have your point here. But, please allow me to add also this, if such an uncommon start gave us the opportunity to develop this discussion (deadly interesting to me), then I think there must have been something good even in my editorial mistake.