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Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 24 ridiculed Estonia’s new defense minister Martin Herem over his recent remarks about Estonia’s ability to fight a far larger country and strike targets across the border.
“The circus has left town, but the clowns have stayed behind. This is political clownery,” Putin told reporters.
He questioned Herem’s suggestion that Estonia could confront Moscow on its own, pointing to the disparity in manpower between the two countries.
“Estonia’s population is, I believe, 1.3 million people. The Russian army, just the Russian army, numbers 1.535 million. And Estonia’s 1.3 million includes everyone, from babies to the elderly,” Putin said.
The Russian president dismissed the statements as “complete nonsense, utter absurdity,” adding, “Unfortunately, these are the kinds of people we have to deal with today.”
Herem, a former commander of the Estonian Defense Forces who became defense minister on September 16, has made several unusually aggressive statements since entering government.
In remarks reported soon after he took office, Herem said Estonia was capable of fighting alone without NATO, vowed that attacking forces would be destroyed and claimed that the country has the ability to attack military infrastructure across the border in Russia.
Reports quoted him as saying Estonia should be prepared to strike forces attempting to attack it from 50 or 100 kilometers away, naming the Russian towns of Ivangorod and Pechory as possible targets.
Herem toned down his rhetoric earlier this week, saying Tallinn did not see a threat requiring an increase in military readiness and that the country’s assessment had not changed. He also said the main effort and resources of the Russian military remained focused on Ukraine.
In any case, the threats from the Estonian defense minister show how far detached from reality some NATO states have gone. While such threats may appear laughable when compared with the reality on the ground, this dangerous rhetoric could at some point lead to real escalation.
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