Rõivas calls on Ratas to cancel Saint Petersburg visit
Estonia's former Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform) believes that Prime Minister Jüri Ratas should cancel his scheduled visit to Saint Petersburg on Saturday.
"The least Prime Minister Jüri Ratas can do in the conditions of escalation of the Syrian crisis is to cancel his visit to Russia tomorrow," Reform Party spokespeople quoted Rõivas as saying.
Ratas is scheduled to attend events at the Estonian St. John's Church in Saint Petersburg on Saturday which mark the 100th anniversary of a demonstration in which 40,000 local Estonians marched to demand autonomy for Estonia. The events are the earliest scheduled as part of the Estonia 100 program celebrating the country's centennial.
"There is no justification for the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime supported by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and it is the international community's duty to intervene in words, attitudes and deeds," said Rõivas.
According to the former prime minister, the messages of Minister of Foregin Affairs Sven Mikser and Minister of Defence Margus Tsahkna carry no weight so long as MEP Yana Toom, a leading politician of the Ratas' Center Party, publicly ridicules them and the prime minister, instead of unambiguously condemning Toom's remarks, goes on a visit to Russia.
"I don't like at all the thought of an Estonia whose brightest foreign policy star is Yana Toom," Rõivas emphasized. "I'm looking to Ratas for more decisive action in both words and deeds."
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS