BY INGE HINNEMO
STOCKHOLM, Sweden- At a press conference in Moscow
January 9, Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov
declared that Moscow should introduce economic sanctions on
states that discriminate against ethnic Russians. He
especially singled out Estonia, according to the Russian
news agency Itar-Tass. Primakov also said that Moscow will
not sign a border treaty with the Estonian government until
the situation of the Russian minority there is improved.
Such a treaty has been prepared since the beginning of last December, but the Russian government has postponed signing it. The Estonian government had agreed not to mention its territorial claims against Russia, dating to the Tartu peace in 1920. Moscow sent a delegation to the Estonian capital, Tallin, for discussions on the status of the minority of ethnic Russians living in that country.
Primakov's statement comes as the Kremlin makes clear its continuing opposition to the enlargement of NATO eastward to include Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in a first round. The day before the press conference, Primakov said that a rewriting of the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty is a condition for Moscow signing any treaty with NATO. Moscow is also advancing its plans to set up a federation with Belarus, a former Soviet republic that borders Poland and the southern Baltic states of Latvia and Lithuania.
Inge Hinnemo is a member of the Metal Workers union in
Stockholm.
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