ESTONIAN PRESIDENT: MOSCOW MUST END AGGRESSIVE FOREIGN POLICY.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 1 Issue: 8

Speaking to reporters May 9, Estonian president Lennart Meri said Moscow must turn away from its currently aggressive line if it hopes to be integrated into the West. Meri, who had participated in West European V-E Day commemorations on May 8, said that he feared Yeltsin had little room to maneuver on this point because of the upcoming parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation. In other remarks, Meri said that in Eastern Europe, the choice is between West European democracy and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He noted that Estonia had already chosen the West. Meri also said that Paris and London fully understood and supported the decision of the Baltic presidents not to go to Moscow and he criticized those Western leaders who would compromise their principles for short term agreements. Such an approach to international affairs, the Estonian president suggested, always entails a domino effect.

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