Europe
Russia Minorities in Baltics Told to Fit In or Face Consequences
Native Russian speakers, who make up almost 30% of Estonia’s population, have found themselves in the government’s crosshairs.
The flags of Ukraine, right, and Estonia reflected in a bus stop on Freedom Square in Tallinn.
Photographer: Peter Kollanyi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Larysa has lived in Estonia most of her life, but struggles with the language. One of the Baltic nation’s nearly 400,000 native Russian speakers, she taught at a kindergarten catering to the minority for almost two decades.
That was until September, when the government required more than four dozen Russian schools to change their language of instruction to Estonian as part of a wide-ranging campaign to stamp out the Kremlin’s influence since the invasion of Ukraine. Larysa is among some 670 teachers who lost their jobs.