Russian Regime Has Done Its Worst, Russian Journalist Says
This article has been amended to specify that Troitsky is not emigrating to Estonia as indicated in the earlier piece.
In an article published in Eesti Päevaleht on June 4, the journalist indicated that he plans to move to Estonia, and the piece featured a gallery of him in his new temporary home, holding a public transport ticket. However, he later told lenta.ru that he does not intend to leave Russia and plans to keep Russian citizenship, while teaching in Moscow, Tallinn and Helsinki.
Although under no direct threat personally, Tallinn and has been offered jobs at Tallinn University and Estonian Business School - choosing Estonia over the US because he has many friends here and loves Estonia, he told the daily Eesti Päevaleht in an interview.
According to him, the official Russian propaganda fell on fertile ground because great numbers of Russians “feel offended, like losers, like losers of the Cold War, robbed of an empire” and manipulating these inferiority complexes yields desired results to the authorities.
Regarding the potential security threat to Estonia, he said the membership of NATO and EU provides protection, which is nearly a 100 percent proof guarantee that nothing serious will be organized here. “The thing is that the aggressiveness of the Russian leadership has diminished recently. They have already done the worst they can do. It won’t get any worse,” he said.
The events in eastern Ukraine, a “diverson-provocation”, cannot be replicated in Estonia, because the Estonian authorities drew the right conclusions from the attempted provocation in 2007, Troitsky said, alluding to the riots that followed the removal of the Soviet war memorial or “Bronze Soldier.”
Commenting on the mass protests against Putin that were held in Russia a few years ago, Troitsky said there is not much of these is left, with the majority of the participants choosing either emigration or remaining in Russia and keeping contacts with the authorities to the minimum.
When asked about the longevity of Putin’s reign, Troitsky said the President is facing two serious threats - problems in the economy and and a rift within the Russian elite. “The majority of the elite is quietly horrified by what is happening. This new expansionist policy damages business relations, Russia’s reputation, and eventually will damage the personal well-being of all of them.”