Estonian National Election — Capitalizing on the anti-Russian sentiment

Campaigns on the horizon: Estonian National — Capitalizing on the anti-Russian sentiment

With the Russian invasion ravaging Ukraine and national elections being in Estonia on March 5th, it’s abundantly clear that the conflict is affecting election campaigns. Estonia’s long history with Russia has left the people with strong feelings about its neighbouring country’s actions.

Estonia still has a large Russian community that makes up ¼ of the total population. Most of them live in the capital of Tallinn and the rest in the eastern part of the country close to the Russian border. Integrating the non-Estonian community over the last three decades has been less than successful to say the least. There is still a lot of distrust among Estonians towards the Russian community stemming from the fact that a lot of them still remember the hardships they had to endure during the Soviet Union. The war that Russia started in Ukraine has only reinforced these beliefs.