Riigikogu members have drafted legislation to revoke the voting rights of third-country citizens in local elections. The move is mainly aimed at Russian and Belarusian citizens and was proposed after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

"If a citizen is connected to an aggressor state through their citizenship, and to put it simply, a Russian citizen can participate in what the Putin regime calls an election at the Russian embassy, then they should understand that they cannot have a say in Estonia's internal affairs," Michal told "Esimene stuudio" on Thursday.

The Reform Party chairman said Russian citizens who are critical of the Putin regime likely do not expect to have a say in other countries' affairs or view citizenship insignificant.

He did not agree that Russians and Belarusians living in Estonia, who are Estonian patriots, would be insulted by the move.

"The matter of citizenship is simple – these Estonian patriots should become Estonian citizens; that is the easiest way," Michal said.

"If someone prefers to be a Russian citizen, then why should we assume they can make decisions in Estonia? We should be able to accept that if someone wants to have a say here, they should become an Estonian citizen in the future, and that is entirely reasonable," the prime minister said.

"If someone is a citizen of another country, especially an aggressor state like Russia or Belarus, the choices are entirely different. My question is, why would any reasonable person here even want to be involved with the affairs of those countries?" added Michal.

He said the priority now is to agree on the wording of the draft legislation about removing rights to vote from citizens of aggressor countries. The question of non-citizens, also known as gray passport holders, is also important, but should not interfere with the first objective.

"Today's debate centers on how and in what way to make it clear that citizens of an aggressor state will not be making decisions about our matters. The bill currently in parliament is a compromise. It has been under discussion for several months, with the first stage lasting three months, and the entire process taking a total of seven months," he said.

Michal's preference is to take voting rights away from stateless people, as they have had more than 30 years to make a choice.

"But the primary goal is to remove the ability of citizens from aggressor states to influence our affairs. That is the main objective and the compromise being debated in the Riigikogu. Discussions about non-citizens can take place, but I would not endanger the primary goal because of that debate," he said.

The prime minister agreed the change to the constitution could have been made long ago.

The bill proposed by the Constitutional Committee will revoke voting rights for all third-country nationals except for those from European Union and NATO member states. It will be discussed in the Riigikogu next week.

It is also difficult for Russian and Belarusian citizens to change their citizenship as both countries require a person to go back to Russia or Belarus to do so.

Estonia does not allow dual citizenship by naturalization.

Editor's note: If you're affected by this issue and want to comment in a future article, email [email protected]

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