Estonian President: “9th of May in Russia? Why Not.”
One day after reporting the invite/provocation of the Lithuanian President Ms. Dalia Grybauskaite, her Estonian fellow colleague President Toomas H. Ilves did his part saying that he would participate to the celebrations of the 9th of May in Moscow – if invited.
“So far we haven’t received any invitations or official explanations in this issue from Russia, neither do we know what will exactly take place there that day,” President Ilves declared in an interview given to Eesti Paevaleht.
“But when five years ago, the 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany was celebrated in Moscow, I said that the Estonia’s head of state should accept the invitation of Russia to attend the event.”
According the Estonian President there is no reason to criticize a country celebrating its victories as “We [Estonians] are proud of our War of Freedom victory while Russians are over their victory in World War two.”
Besides, according to President Ilves we should not expect a significant change in the relations between the two countries in the near future even if issues such as the environment of Peipsi lake and the problems connected to border crossing could be a good start for developing better ties also with the neighbor Russia.
