Consistent discriminationMay 2nd, 2007 - 23:16:08

“'I know that our country is rich in both wise Estonians as well as wise Russians, and I also know that neither of them are as stupid as to be affected by toothless hate-mongers,' President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said in an emotional appeal to the nation.” Why didn’t he speak of consistent discrimination of Russian population. Estonia tries to portray itself as democratic, yet they openly deny the right to vote for much of its population (Russian part). I guess voting is not part of democracy according to Estonia, but discrimination is.

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VladyslavMay 3rd, 2007 - 09:00:56

Consistent discrimination? I think not, just because Estonia hasn't made Russian an official language, doesn't mean that Russians are being discriminated against. Russians living in Estonia need to realize that the USSR is dead, they are living in a new country where people don't like being pressured to become a part of Russia.

This whole discrimination thing is overblown by the Russians state media, if you discrimination look at the way foreigners are treated in Russia. Institutionalized racism, skinheads killing 9 year old girls and getting away with a slap on the wrist. Not allowing people from the caucus region to trade in market, because Russians need jobs (most of them are too lazy to work at the markets). Or Putin's stance on homosexuals, because Russia is experience a demographic it's to discriminate against homosexuals?

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VicTalkMay 3rd, 2007 - 15:38:01

Vladislav, language has nothing to do with it. Although it is discriminatory to force people to use a particular language (you see to be upset that Ukrainians were forced to use Russian language and I think this was wrong and hope you will agree with me). I live in US and you can see official signs in many major languages besides English, such as Spanish (of course Mexico is so close), Vietnamese, Russian and so on…
The problem in Estonia is that Russian speaking population is often denied an ability to vote and this is as undemocratic as it gets. The major part of democracy (as I understand it) is not about enforcing the rule of majority, but not infringing on rights of minorities (political, ethnic and any other). You are correct that discrimination is also present in Russia, but the difference is that in Russia people being arrested for stuff like this while in Estonia government actually encourage these kinds of actions. Not sure what you mean by “slap on the wrist”, but I hope you are not advocating Stalin’s methods of ignoring the due process and executing anybody who was near the scene of crime just because. After all the suffering that Russian went during the Stalin’s rule I would imagine it would never fly in Russia. Sometimes in US people literally get away with murder (O.J. Simplon trial) but that the price you must be willing to pay to live in free society.

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