Estonian lawmakers have adopted a statement that declares Russia a “terrorist regime” and condemns its recent annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
Of the 101 MPs, 88 on Tuesday voted in favour, 10 were absent and three abstained.
The parliament “declares Russia a terrorist regime and the Russian Federation a country that supports terrorism”, the statement said.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s regime, with its threats of a nuclear attack, has turned Russia into the biggest danger to peace both in Europe and in the whole world,” it said.
Putin, who in late February sent troops into neighbouring Ukraine for a second time, has repeatedly cautioned Western countries that any attack on Russia could provoke a nuclear response. This month, the Russian president also signed laws admitting the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Kherson and Zaporizhia into Russia after referendums denounced by Ukraine and its allies as “shams” with no legal consequences.
The Estonian parliament also said it considers it “necessary to define the armed forces of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics established by the Russian Federation as well as the Wagner private military company as terrorist organisations”.
Estonian Parliament declared Russia a terrorist regime.https://t.co/bmoWhsEOSl
— Aivo Orav (@AivoOrav) October 18, 2022
The parliament in neighbouring Latvia declared Russia a “state sponsor of terrorism” in August, accusing Moscow of “targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people”. Lithuania adopted a similar resolution in May.
Sergei Tsekov, a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament, warned that Russia would take “retaliatory measures that will show Latvia its place and will be quite painful”. That could include restrictions on transit, he said in remarks carried by the state news agency RIA Novosti in August.
The Baltic countries, which spent almost five decades under Soviet occupation, are among the staunchest supporters of Ukraine and the fiercest critics of Putin’s government.
