Interfax, my favorite news source, has a warm and cuddly interview with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, where he tells the Russian interviewer that the people who say "dah" instead of "jah" in Estonia ain't their compatriots - they're his.Ilves voiced hope that people of all ethnic backgrounds in his country regard Estonia as their home.
"Therefore I cannot agree with Russia calling not only Russians but Ukrainians, Belarussians, Kazakhs and members of other ethnic groups living in Estonia its countrymen. They are our countrymen, of course," he said.
"Estonia is a homeland for everyone who lives here. It cannot be otherwise or people would leave Estonia. It would be bad for Estonia," he said.
Ilves said he is determined "to work during the next five years for all people in Estonia to feel at home, for everyone to have work, health and love."
Awwwww. He said 'love.' Sometimes it is the most obvious things that need to be said and I think this is one of those things that perhaps, should be expressed more to the Russian side, to whatever number of them are listening. You should read the whole interview - he sounds off on the Bronze Soldier monument, the Border Treaty, and even analyzes comparing Estonian-Russian relations to being ice cold.
Commenting on a remark by an Estonian official calling his country's relations with Russia "ice-cold," Ilves said, "If you look at an ice cube, you will see that everything inside it appears to be stiff and lifeless. But if you look at Estonian-Russian relations, you can't see stiffness and lifelessness in them."
See, you can take the ambassador out of the embassy, but you can't take the ...
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