The Estonian Education Minister Liked Mariy-El
// National-Radicals called that pro-Russian propaganda
Estonian Education Minister Mailis Reps, after returning from the Russian Republic of Mariy-El, was criticized by local ultra-nationalist, ex-Prime Minister Mart Laar for "pro-Russian propaganda." He said that the education minister is stupid and that she should leave the government.
The former prime minister had such a drastic reaction to the speech Mailis Reps gave while visiting Republic Mariy-El, where she participated in the 10th World Congress of Finno-Ugric people. In her speech, the minister gave her opinion about the situation in culture and education in Mariy language. The Reps' words were aired on Russian TV channel RTR. She said that what she had seen in Mariy-El is completely different than the picture that is presented by Estonian media. The media paint the life of Mariyens in most dark colors. "We don't have much correct information," Reps admitted.
In his interview to the newspaper Eesti Paevaleht, ex-prime minister Mart Laar said that he was shocked by Reps' words and sees the reason for her speech in the agreement that was made between the Centrist Party, which Reps belongs to, and Russian party "United Russia." "Unfortunately, I don't remember if anybody in Estonia was ever fired for pro-Russian speeches," Laar complained.
It is necessary to note that while Laar was the prime minister of Estonia, the majority of the local Russian population was striped of their Estonian citizenship and denied civil rights. Recently the Estonian national-radicals adopted the new strategy to heavily criticize the life of Finno-Ugrian
language minorities (Estonia belongs to this language group) in Russia. This strategy was chosen as a response for Russia’s critique about the Russian minority discrimination in the Baltic country. After the initiative of Estonian representatives, the European Parliament adopted on May 12 a resolution criticizing the situation in Mariy-El, where the children allegedly are denied learning the Mariy language and the minority press is not free. So, the words of minister of education inflicted some damage on the propaganda platform of the Estonian ultra-nationalists.
Current prime-minister Andrus Ansip, agreed with Laars, when in press-conference on Thursday he said the speech of Reps "was used by Russia as a propaganda tool and in today's situation it is directed against the Mariy people."
Alexander Shegedin, Tallin
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 19, 2005
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