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Estonian president does not see Russian language as threat to her country

Kersti Kaljulaid arrived in Moscow on Thursday for the inauguration of the restored building of her country’s embassy

© Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, April 21. /TASS/. Estonia’s President Kersti Kaljulaid does not regard the Russian language is a threat to her country and Russian speakers, as opponents of democracy.

"No language is a threat," she said in an interview to the Rossiya-1 television channel. "I always say the journalists who think that we, Estonians, believe that Russian speakers hate democracy are very wrong. I believe that the Russian speaking minority in Estonia are people who love freedom regardless of the language they use."

Kaljulaid arrived in Moscow on Thursday for the inauguration of the restored building of her country’s embassy in the center of Moscow. Later in the day she was received by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that the absence of meaningful contacts between Russian and Estonian officials for a long period of time was not normal. Kaljulaid invited Putin to visit Estonia next year.

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