Estonian state strips Russian minority of voting rights – no to national division!

On 26 March, the Estonian parliament – the Riigikogu – voted through a new addition to the constitution. The amendment revokes the right to vote in local elections for non-EU citizens, as well as stateless people residing in Estonia from the next election. This means the loss of voting rights for over 15 percent of the population!

The amendment is an outrageous attack on democratic rights, specifically targeting Estonia’s significant Russian and Belarusian populations, who are scandalously being treated as a ‘threat’ to the nation by the Estonian government. This is only the latest instance of the Baltic states’ attacks and provocations against their Russian minorities.

The ‘enemy within’

The decision to amend the Constitution was almost unanimous – out of 101 votes, 93 were in favour, with seven against and only one abstaining. It was met with applause from MPs. Kristen Michal, Estonia’s Prime Minister, said after the vote: “The decisions in our local life won't be made by the citizens of the aggressor states, but we'll decide by ourselves.”

The main justification for the decision was the whipped up claim that Estonia must ‘urgently’ ensure that Russians, and anyone else potentially willing to act in Russia’s interests, cannot ‘interfere’ with local democracy and vote contrary to the interests of ‘national security’. Alar Karis, the president of Estonia, accepted the Riigikogu's decision, cynically adding, however, that it is important that those who lost their voting rights do not “feel excluded from social life or see themselves as security threats”.

This is a slanderous attack on Estonia’s Russian minority, who are baselessly being presented as the ‘enemy within’ in order to stoke fears of the ‘Russian threat’ among Estonians. Karis’ hypocritical words cannot conceal the sneering suspicion with which the Estonian ruling class regards non-Estonians and particularly Russians, many of whom have lived in Estonia with their families for generations.

15 percent of the population affected

Before this amendment, non-Estonian citizens aged over 16 living in Estonia on a permanent residence permit had the right to vote in local elections, although not in parliamentary or EU elections.

As of 2024, there were over 161,000 citizens from non-EU states residing in Estonia, out of which around 70,000 were Russian citizens and around 60,000 had no specified citizenship. The amendment will mean the loss of all voting rights for 11.85 percent of the population immediately. Another 4.6 percent will lose these rights after the upcoming elections, as residents holding ‘grey passports’ – those without specific citizenship of any country – will be allowed to vote one last time this autumn.

The Baltic Soviet republics were rapidly industrialised after the Second World War, with workers coming from other parts of the Soviet Union to work in the new factories / Image: Sillerkiil, Wikimedia Commons

Estonia is home to around 300,000 ethnic Russians, and many more who are not ethnically Russian but who speak Russian as their mother tongue. This is primarily due to Estonia having been a part of the USSR, as workers migrated freely between the Soviet republics.

The Baltic Soviet republics were rapidly industrialised after the Second World War, with workers coming from other parts of the Soviet Union to work in the new factories, power plants, etc. After the collapse of the USSR, a number of these workers and their families emigrated back to Russia, to other ex-Soviet countries, or to western Europe. But many stayed, having spent most of their lives in the Baltics and considering it their home.

Lithuania was the only Baltic country that granted citizenship to everyone residing within its borders in 1991. In Estonia and Latvia, only those who were citizens before 1940 when the ‘Soviet and Nazi occupations’ began, as well as their descendants, automatically became citizens of the newly ‘independent’ countries. Everyone else either received Russian citizenship – as Russia offered passports to any former USSR citizen upon request – or became essentially stateless, with an option of becoming a citizen by naturalisation at a later date.

‘If they wanted to, they would’

Lacking an alternative, large numbers of non-citizens have since acquired citizenship. In Estonia today, most of the Russian-speaking minority have Estonian citizenship and will not be affected by the amendment to the constitution.

For the remaining tens of thousands, however, the government emphasises that all Russian and Belarusian citizens are more than welcome to finally renounce their citizenship of these countries and naturalise in Estonia. It is insidiously argued by chauvinist politicians and the press: ‘After all, they have already had so much time to apply for Estonian citizenship, so why haven’t they?’ The implication is that they must be ‘disloyal’ elements.

This is the callous logic with which the Estonian ruling class treats the Russians and Belarusians living within its borders. From the ruling class’ perspective, all these minorities need to do to graciously be granted the bare minimum of their democratic rights is renounce their country of origin and abandon their foreign citizenship.

If, for some reason, they do not wish to go through a gruelling bureaucratic process to cut all ties to their ancestral homes, then clearly they have secretive ties to ‘enemy states’ which pose a threat to Estonia’s local elections.

Collateral damage

It is also worth noting that, in their urgency, the Riigikogu stripped not only Russians, Belarusians and stateless individuals of the only voting rights they had – they also included all non-EU citizens.

This includes Ukrainians, who are already unable to vote in their own country, due to Zelensky constantly delaying elections. It also includes citizens of Estonia’s NATO allies such as the US. Consumed by the so-called ‘threat’ of Russians and Belarusians in Estonia, the ruling class has kept quiet about their attacks on the democratic rights of citizens of ‘allied’ nations.

Many of those facing these attacks have rightly expressed disappointment at not being trusted despite their contributions to Estonian society. Others point out that the amendment will have little impact on the level of support for pro-Russian parties, since it is not only non-EU citizens who can and do vote for them.

Divide and rule

The fact that Russian speakers – and Estonia’s non-citizens – usually hold more critical opinions about NATO and its role in the Ukraine war in particular was certainly a motivating factor for the Estonian government to carry out this attack on their democratic rights.

The fact that Russian speakers – and Estonia’s non-citizens – usually hold more critical opinions about NATO and its role in the Ukraine war in particular was certainly a motivating factor for the Estonian government / Image: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Flickr

Many Russians in Estonia have a complicated relationship with the country as a clear result of the way in which the Estonian state treats and has treated minorities for decades. It has left these layers increasingly alienated from the ‘vision’ presented by the country’s leaders.

The main motivating factor, however, is to whip up anti-Russian chauvinism and to distract and divide the working class along culture war lines. The Estonian ruling class – along with those of the two other Baltic states – has used the question of ethnicity to divide the workers ever since the dissolution of the USSR. They have consistently attacked Russian speakers’ rights in a multitude of ways, most importantly by limiting their rights to receive school education in their mother tongue, but also by inciting culture wars with empty but controversial gestures such as tearing down Soviet-era monuments.

Of course, it is true that Putin has his own interests in the former Soviet countries, which he regards as Russia’s backyard. He often speaks about the need to ‘support’ Russians living abroad, and about a broader ‘Russian world’ beyond the Russian Federation. Of course, he has his own cynical purposes. But the campaign against all things Russian has little to do with any real threat of Russia invading NATO-aligned Baltic states. It is just an excuse for the ruling class to tie itself ever closer to western imperialism and to whip up divisions in the working class.

The Estonian ruling class’ attacks on an imagined fifth column of Russian speakers in the country, in the name of ‘decolonising’ the country and ‘standing up to Russia’, including the recent assault on their democratic rights, are intended as a distraction from the real threats facing the working class. The restoration of capitalism has not gone as positively as the Baltic ruling class would like us to think.

The real crisis

Far from being truly independent, economically the Baltic countries are dominated by Swedish imperialism. Meanwhile, Estonia is one of the most unequal countries in the Eurozone. In 2023, five percent of households held 48 percent of the country’s wealth. The healthcare system is in crisis, and inflation is the highest among Eurozone countries at five percent, with food price inflation forecast to exceed general inflation levels this year.

In the midst of a cost of living crisis, Estonia’s government has committed to increase defence spending to over five percent of GDP, in line with Trump’s demands, with the working class footing the bill.

Estonia’s rearmament is to be financed through VAT increases on consumer goods including food, through wage freezes for public sector workers, cuts to funding for healthcare and education, and more. The leader of Eesti 200, the junior partner in the current government, has expressed concern that “pensions are growing too fast”. She assures us, however, that the Riigikogu “can make further unpopular decisions more effectively than in the previous government”. The money for defence has to be procured from somewhere, but naturally it will not be to the detriment of the capitalists, as the proposed scrapping of the increase in corporation tax proved.

Class struggle on the agenda

At a certain point, the ruling class’ attacks on minorities and the surrounding culture war will cease to be enough to distract Estonian workers from the crisis of capitalism. Industrial action is already on the order of the day, with the teachers’ union saying that if their current demand for a 10 percent raise in teacher salaries is not met, they are “prepared to act”.

As Marxists, we wholly oppose the Estonian ruling class’ assault on the democratic rights of non-EU citizens, and all attacks on minority rights in Estonia and the other Baltic states. The only way to fight back and defend these rights successfully is through the joint struggle of the working class, regardless of ethnicity, to overthrow the rotten politicians and bosses that profit from fostering division. The Revolutionary Communist International is laying the groundwork for organising those wanting to fight capitalism in the Baltics. Join us in this task!