Unlike the Republic of Moldova, Estonia is very determined in the implementation of educational, cultural and economic policies, said Moldova’s ex-ambassadors to Estonia Victor Guzun. According to him, the Baltic county encourages the Russian speakers to learn the Estonian language, while those who don’t know the official language cannot hold public posts, IPN reports.
Estonia obtained its independence from the USSR on August 20, 1991, but has a path that is fully different from Moldova’s and is now a member of the EU and NATO. The former ambassador of Moldova to Estonia said the Estonian people’s resolve to do reforms and to apply clear rules with regard to Russian citizens enabled the country to develop.
“In Estonia, 24% of the citizens are Russian ethnics or speak Russian. In Estonia, there are about 100,000 citizens who do not have Estonian nationality and have passports in which it is written alien, which is foreigner, and these cannot vote in parliamentary elections. They can vote in local elections, in European Parliament elections, but cannot vote in the parliamentary elections and it is evident why. Compared with the Republic of Moldova, Estonia has been much resolute in saying that this is our country and in our country we agree the policies, we discuss the educational, cultural policies,” Victor Guzun stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
According to the diplomat, the Russian language is the most popular minority language spoken in Estonia. There are many cities where Russian ethics represent the majority population, such as Narva city in northeastern Estonia.
“If I go to Narva, I can talk to someone from Russia, which is situated on the other side of the river. 97% of the citizens there speak Russian, but you will not see captions in Russian in the city. As regards the Russian speakers, they not only say that these should learn Estonian, but also work on another dimension. For example, you cannot be a public servant if you don’t know Estonian, or police officer. The explanation is that the country does not want to force them, but tells them that they enjoy reduced opportunities of holding public posts and cannot have competitive salaries if they don’t know the official language. The average official salary in Estonia is almost €1,700. When I first went to the Diplomatic School in Estonia in 2006, the average official salary there was slightly over €700,” stated the ex-ambassador.
Victor Guzun served as ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Estonia during 2010-2015.
