Estonia Plans Apartheid for Russians, Yeltsin Says

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin on Thursday accused Estonia of adopting a new law so discriminatory against its ethnic Russian minority that it constitutes “ethnic cleansing and the introduction of an Estonian version of apartheid.”

Yeltsin’s blast was the fiercest rhetorical attack by Moscow since the Baltic states became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev also threatened unspecified economic sanctions against Estonia, further fraying the threadbare relations between the two new democracies.

However, Estonian officials shrugged off both the verbal onslaught and the notion that Russia still has the clout to inflict economic pain.

“Russian politicians, who call themselves democrats, are Russian chauvinists,” retorted Tiit Made, a leading legislator.

Since independence, Estonia has doggedly steered its economy away from the former Soviet Bloc and toward the West. Russia now accounts for only 17% of Estonia’s foreign trade. Although the nation buys nearly all its energy from Russia, it is already paying world prices and can easily switch to another supplier, economists said.

Russia could halt withdrawal of the remaining 6,500 troops it has promised to bring home by the end of this year, a threat that Russian officials have made before but failed to carry out. But that move would be costly since it has to pay hard currency to support its soldiers in Estonia, where the cost of living is significantly higher, said a senior diplomat in the capital city of Tallinn.

Late Thursday, the Russian television news program “Vesti” reported that Russia had suspended the withdrawal and breakup of its Baltic Fleet.

The law that has stirred up the current controversy was adopted by Estonia’s Parliament on Wednesday. It is aimed at resolving the precarious legal status of roughly 470,000 ethnic Russians and other Slavs who now make up about 30% of the Estonian population. Many are former Soviet soldiers or their children who settled in the prosperous Baltic nation over the 50 years since the Soviet takeover.

In essence, the law requires non-Estonians to learn the Estonian language and become citizens, or eventually be forced to leave the country.

Russians, Ukrainians, Belarussians and others who do not want to leave Estonia must apply for citizenship or an “alien passport” within two years. Any person living in Estonia before July 1, 1990, may qualify for citizenship, provided they pass the language test.

Those who do not have residence will not be granted permission to work, the law says.