On Friday, Reuters news agency, citing anonymous sources, reported that Pentagon officials had urged several NATO allies, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, to tone down their public rhetoric on the threat posed by Russia.

Tsahkna and outgoing Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary General Jonatan Vseviov pushed back on the media reports on Friday afternoon.

"The United States has not made any official proposal to us that we should in any way change our foreign policy or our communication," Tsahkna told ERR.

"These are anonymous sources. I cannot comment on them, and I do not want to comment on them. However, Estonia is highly respected in the eyes of the United States and more broadly within NATO, because we are, after all, experts when it comes to Russia. Likewise, we can see very far into Russia, and our expert assessments and intelligence are highly valued," the minister said.

He pointed out that Russia is "organizing terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage" against Europe and that Estonia has not been afraid to point this out, publicly.

"Estonia has always been very clear and honest when it comes to the Russian threat and Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Also about the fact that we do not currently see Russia preparing for large-scale aggression against NATO, because we do not see any major movements of Russian troops or increases in their capabilities beyond our borders. At the same time, however, we see Russia increasingly organizing terrorist attacks and acts of sabotage against Europe. And here, too, we have been very clear in publicly attributing these acts and punishing the perpetrators. However, what Russia is doing is trying to undermine Western unity. It is trying to play on that same fear of escalation, which Russia has constantly done, while continually accusing NATO and the Western world of preparing some kind of aggression against Russia, which is absolutely not true," Tsahkna said.

'Russia is provoking us'

One source told Reuters that Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official, recently told an official from one of the Baltic states that Russia should not be provoked.  

Tsahkna denied that Estonia is provoking Russia.

"We are in constant contact with the United States on security policy, on the deployment of their troops here and on NATO defense plans. And it is certainly not in our interests to provoke Russia in any way; rather, Russia is provoking us. So we are not under any pressure one way or the other. We discuss these matters together. The United States is a NATO ally and Article 5 works, so this communication takes place daily," Tsahkna said.

Tsahkna stressed that neither the Baltic states nor Estonia have been aggressive in their messages in any way. "This entire narrative is connected to Putin's desire to undermine the political unity of our Western world," he said.

Ministry of Defense spokesperson Ines Edur told ERR that the ministry does not comment on a story based on anonymous sources and that no such request has been received by the ministry through official channels.

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