The Reform Party has once again raised the issue of Russian citizens' right to vote. The reasons, however, have more to do with the prime minister's party's low ratings than with any interest in citizenship policy.

I am glad that the Reform Party has finally concluded that it is impossible to manipulate the electorate (and election results) on such a large scale without amending the Constitution.

Let us recall that their initial goal was to limit the basic democratic rights of a large group of voters in the next elections by a simple majority in parliament. The Social Democrats opposed this, but we agreed in the coalition agreement that the minister of justice would analyze the possibilities of resolving the matter without amending the Constitution – as everyone agreed that in this coalition, we are not going to change the Constitution. And indeed, it turned out that there was no such way. As one might have expected.

Now they are calling for a hasty constitutional amendment. I will not go deeper into the general premise that the Constitution should be only revised after it has been demonstrated that it is indispensable for the functioning and development of the state and society. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a situation where the Constitution becomes the object of the partisan politics of the day. Just think of the recent desire to define marriage in the Constitution.

Here are two reasons why disenfranchising Russian citizens is a bad idea, despite its political appeal.

First, the basic principle of a liberal constitutional state is the individual nature of guilt and responsibility. The basic argument for collective disenfranchisement is that the citizens of the aggressor state have an anti-Western outlook and therefore vote in local elections for people who pose a threat to Estonia's security.

Of course, there are people among Russian citizens who pose a threat to Estonia's security, but there are also such people among Estonian citizens. Integration studies confirm that among the very large group of Russian citizens there is a considerable number of Estonian patriots who genuinely want to be Estonian citizens, but have not learned Estonian due to their advanced age and lack of practical communication environment.

With that we should be agreeing with President Alar Karis, who said in his opening speech to the Riigikogu in September 2023: "My concern today is whether we can guarantee our security better by treating each person individually, focusing on the real threat – rather than casting suspicion on a general group whose members do not seem to deserve to be treated as individuals making personal choices."

Secondly, the issue must be approached in the spirit of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia. As one of its authors, Liia Hänni has pointed out: "We must assess whether, by casting doubt on the whole group, we are furthering the goal of protecting our 'internal and external peace,' as postulated in the preamble to the Constitution. We have to ask ourselves whether, as a result of such a step, we will encourage Russian citizens who are distant in terms of values to come over to our side, or whether we will push them to the more extreme periphery of the political process."

What is the message we are sending Russian citizens who are Estonian patriots and want to vote for Katri Raik, Maria Yufereva-Skuratovski, or Kristina Kallas in the next elections? The state has no specific accusations against you, but there is an element of doubt...

The sociologically astute are also aware that the outcome could be the opposite because group "punishment" based on an external characteristic, as the target group, will undoubtedly interpret this step, resulting in reverse mobilization in defense of the group.

Since Russian citizens are a minority of people with a Russian mother tongue, most of them are Estonian citizens or have a grey passport, we can achieve a situation where the turnout of this group will increase and compensate for the decrease of Russian voters. Possibly quite a lot. The result will be a large group of compatriots with a bitter mood and even more pronounced nationalistic voting behavior. And the election results will not change.

Instead of seeing large numbers of our people as a security threat, we should see a positive change. We are at a historical moment when the Russian-speaking electorate, as a result of the marginalization of the Center Party and the division of values caused by the war in Ukraine, is much more open to the messages of different parties. An increasing number of people do not want to define themselves along national lines.

So instead of limiting voters' rights, all parliamentary parties should work to bring all our people into a common space of values. That would be a real fight for Estonia's security.

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