Lavrova also collected money for Soviet war veterans in Estonia since she had a personal connection with them, through her grandfather, she also said, in a long interview which follows.

Who specifically proposed that you take on the position of Lasnamäe district elder?

[Tallinn Mayor] Jevgeni Ossinovski personally made the offer.

Why did he make the offer to you specifically ? Had you held any discussions before you came to your decision?

Yes, we had met. He called me up and asked if I would like to meet with him.

In all honesty, I haven't asked him why he offered [the district elder position] specifically to me.

I'm thinking that perhaps someone recommended, me because I am a well-known figure in Russian-speaking Estonian society. I have been involved in projects and initiatives for 20 years. I am one of the initiators of "Teeme ära" (internationally, "World Cleanup Day" – ed.) in Estonia.

I think that my experience, education, and background fit, perhaps not perfectly, but fit in with Lasnamäe. My native language is Russian, and I speak relatively good Estonian. I know how to work with people, and I have been an apolitical individual thus far, with no political ambitions of my own.

Will you be joining SDE?

Yes, that was one condition, which is understandable, given it is a political position. Frankly, I would rather not do that. Not that I don't like the Social Democrats, but because then others may start looking at me as if I am on "their side." This will be a challenge for me. But I stand for the basic societal values.

I have no experience of politics, so there are many things I need to learn and ask. This will be a long process, during which time I will gradually find answers. There are for some conventions that I will need to familiarize myself with regarding how things work in politics, and not just in Lasnamäe.

A new Lasnamäe district elder had been sought after for quite some time. When did you meet with Ossinovski?

A week-and-a-half to two weeks ago; at the start of May. I don't know if there were other candidates, or if he also met with them if there were.

You haven't been a member of any political party before?

You know, I officially speaking was, but I didn't engage with it. I was a member of one party; I don't remember the year I joined, and it was a friend who invited me, it was maybe 20 years ago.

I signed up somewhere, with the desire to understand what it was and how things work. But I didn't engage with it in the end.

However this position and its challenges are the first of their kind so far as my life goes. I am heading to Lasnamäe with three priority topics in mind which are highly interesting to me: Education, mental health, and the environment.

I checked the commercial register ahead of this interview. According to that, you were a member of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (a forerunner to the present-day Isamaa – ed.) between 2004 and 2009.

Yes, that is the case. A friend invited me, which was easy back then, 20 years ago.

But there has been another party too: You were a member of the Richness of Life party, albeit four days, in December 2018. What happened there?

Yes, that really happened. What transpired was that [environmentalist] Toomas Trapido had wanted to register a new party, and he invited me.

I thought, yes, a new party, and a green party at that, I can really do something for the common good. So I joined the party, but then had second thoughts that it wouldn't be fair, because I had previous experience with another party.

I called Toomas up and told him, you know, I'm sorry, but I can't do this.

This was because I didn't feel that I had the strength, the energy for it. He was understanding and said, yes of course. We are still good colleagues anyway, across other projects.

Could the reason for leaving the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union also be that you were very much opposed to the relocation of the Bronze Soldier monument, from Tõnismägi [to the military cemetery in April 2007]?

I don't recall if there was any connection there. But I'll say honestly, I absolutely did not like the way it was relocated. I, as a native Russian speaker, of course had read everything that was written in Russian, and what was written in Estonian. I had a lot of bad emotions about that.

"Teeme ära" came a little later; it inspired me, and it was a type of therapy for me. I accomplished many things there. I joined initially as a communications specialist, and now there are many other activities that I do. As part of the [2018] Republic of Estonia 100 celebrations, the motto was that the biggest gift from Estonia to the world, for its birthday, was World Cleanup Day.

If you say that you left the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union in 2009, this could not have been related to the relocation of the Bronze Soldier, which happened in 2007. I simply didn't remember at that time that I was a member of any party; someone asked me something relevant and I started looking at the register. I didn't attend any party meetings, and no one even invited me to anything.

So perhaps it is a great lesson that, don't sign up for something if you are not really ready for it.

On the Bronze Soldier, you have also actively collected donations for Soviet war veterans. But didn't collect for those who fought on the German side?

I helped an organization called the Tallinn union of participants in World War Two. And this organization is registered in Tallinn. I can't say right now how many people are registered there, but in 2008 there were about 3,000 on the rolls. These were the veterans who fought [long pause] on the Soviet side.

These donations were collected to help purchase hearing aids, glasses, medicine and things like that. I have been conducting donation campaigns twice per year since then. There were still many veterans at that time, but very little help for them. Frankly, my grandfather took part in that war and suffered, and he ended up in that meat grinder (likely a reference to the Gulag system – ed.), for three years. So for me, it was like commemorating my grandfather.

I was working as a journalist at that time and got to talk to elderly people. The leader of those war veterans, Vladimir Metelitsa, told me that everyone talks about remembering and being proud of things. But how do these veterans live? Well, young people don't even seem to want to know about that. So I thought that if I can write texts, why not start a campaign on that too.

If you ask if I will be continuing with this campaign, I can say that personally, I don't see any reasons why I can't help people who are elderly and who need help.

Another issue is that people are already aware of the organization, and simply donate to it. I don't have to call for donations, because people already know about it. And since there are very few veterans left nowadays, the money that still comes in is sufficient to meet their needs.

You have been involved in amassing money for Soviet war veterans and you were opposed to the relocation of the Bronze Soldier; you have organized the "Teeme ära" campaign in occupied Crimea too, while you even penned a letter to Vladimir Putin about it. What do you think the coalition partner Isamaa will have to say about your candidacy?

If you present it to them in those terms then of course they will think something bad about it. But it is not quite like that.

For example, as part of the Republic of Estonia 100 celebrations, the state paid me a salary for a whole year to work on having a big and beautiful World Cleanup Day across Russia. I was officially a coordinator there, and before that, I had worked at the Government Office.

From the spring of 2017, I started specifically working on organizing World Cleanup Day in Russia.

This was the biggest civic action, the whole planet took part, and it was an amazing project. In Russia, my goal was to involve 5 percent of the population. And, just like in Estonia, we had to coordinate actions with local government. The same is true in Russia. I did not write a letter to Putin saying "I love you very much" or something. In fact I I didn't write any letter personally.

But my goal was to put together a team there, so I had to find the right people. And think about it: I was in Estonia. The Estonian state remunerated me for it. I looked for people, I contacted many active people in Russia. I wrote to institutions, I wrote to ministries.

In actual fact, I am asking a straightforward question: Why did you have to write to the President of Russia in order to operate in Crimea? Estonia recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine. Whom do you believe Crimea belongs to?

Sorry, I didn't understand the question. The committee I put together wrote to Putin. We planned various activities, and they had to get approval from the authorities, so they wrote to Putin themselves. I don't remember if he responded, but the Ministry of Environment got involved, while Crimea was already occupied by that time. On our World Cleanup Day map, Crimea was not marked as Russian territory at that time.

There are 86 administrative units across Russia; I couldn't write to all of them myself. I searched for people who would promote the cause.

My goal was to mobilize seven million people in one day in Russia. I wasn't able do that in the event; I mobilized a little under a million: Officially it was even less, but many taking part were afraid to sign up officially. After that, I had severe burnout due to the goal not having been achieved.

But at the end of the day they still clean up and do some good things there. When the war broke out in February 2022, we then announced that we had suspended our cooperation with Russia.

And if we track back to the other things you said about me, about helping veterans and the Bronze Soldier issue, theses should not be taken to cast me in the light of some sort of an enemy of Estonia.

I want to show Estonians and also to Isamaa members that I myself am a person who is of Estonian-Russian heritage, who is an Estonian citizen, who knows what it's like to grow up in Lasnamäe, and learn the language. To reveal what it's like to have to prove to Estonians throughout the course of life that I am okay, a normal person here, who could be trusted at least a little.

But look, I am now 40. I am a candidate for the elder of the Lasnamäe district, but you are still testing my attitude towards Crimea and Putin. This is a very good reflection of where we are right now. How much more do I personally have to prove to Estonians that I am at home here?

You have a degree in Swedish philology, and the Social Democrats' press release also mentioned that you are a holistic regression therapist. Can you shed some light what this is?

Well, it's supplementary training. I studied at the holistic institute for four years. It's a type of therapy and techniques for people to get a better connection with themselves and move towards a better, more optimal life. We have a lot of stress in our lives right now. I already mentioned that I myself have burned out, in several jobs.

Plus psychotherapy is often expensive and hard to access; everyone knows how difficult it is to actually get an appointment with a doctor.

I went to the institute to study and started helping other people.

It's in the field of trans-personal psychology, where the body has a very important role, the imagination plays a vital role too.

In a sense, it can be likened to art therapy, where art is the mediator.

We, too, have our own mediators, between the client's inner world and the therapist

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