In Estonia, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who does not spare her support for Ukraine and tirelessly denounces the power of Vladimir Putin, finds herself weakened by revelations about her husband’s professional activities. On Wednesday August 23, public radio ERR claimed that a transport company partly owned by him, Stark Logistics, continued deliveries to Russia after the February 24, 2022 invasion. According to the media Postimees, the head of the government would have granted a loan of 350,000 euros to another company of her husband, Novaria Consult, which holds a 24.8% stake in Stark Logistics. In this country marked with a red iron by the Soviet imprint, it was enough for the opposition and the main media to demand his resignation.
Stark Logistics immediately reacted by issuing a press release, assuring that its only customer operating in Russia, the Estonian company Metaprint, is currently in the process of closing its factory in this country. On Friday August 25, the husband of Kaja Kallas also promised to sell his shares in Stark Logistics without delay, to resign from the board of directors of the company and to end his contract as financial director. He assures that his wife “was not aware” of his professional activities.
For several days, the millions of euros earned by his company thanks to these deliveries to Russia have been making headlines in the Estonian press. The Prime Minister assured on Facebook that Stark Logistics assists Metaprint “in accordance with the laws and sanctions imposed”, and recalls that all trade with Russia must “end as long as the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine continues”.
For Estonian society, the pill is hard to swallow. This Baltic country on the borders of Russia is deeply committed against the aggressor of Ukraine. A poll commissioned by Norstat found on Friday that 57% of people want the prime minister to resign, while 31% said she should explain but could continue in her post, and 7% said she shouldn’t. TO DO. In March 2023, Kaja Kallas was reappointed after her party won 31% of the vote in the legislative elections.
The case brings water to the mill of the opposition to the government. Indrek Luberg, leader of the Right-Wing Party, writes that “Kaja Kallas’ image as a representative of European values is now in tatters. The Prime Minister has only one choice left: resign.” The Center Party announced on Friday that it was beginning to discuss a motion of no confidence in the prime minister, while another opposition group, Isamaa, evoked “considerable damage to the interests and reputation of the Estonia”.
Among supporters of the ruling Reform Party coalition, more than half of respondents think Kaja Kallas should give at least some explanation. The Estonian parliament convened the prime minister next Monday for a special parliamentary committee meeting on “funding the presidential office”, and on Tuesday for a second meeting studying “post-war affairs in Russia”.
The fact that the case is so strongly taken up and commented on in Estonia is not surprising, as the Prime Minister, in office since 2021, presents herself as the leader of European resistance to Russian aggression on the continent. Last March, his initiative to buy one million shells jointly with the countries of the European Union had a global echo. Estonia, which devotes 3% of its national budget to its defence, spends 1% in the form of direct aid to Ukraine.
By way of example, in an interview published by the Financial Times last May, Kaja Kallas said she was “pleading” Estonian companies to find a “moral compass” and refuse agreements that could lead to Moscow gaining access to sanctioned products. Shortly before, the newspaper had published an investigation into the circumvention of Russian sanctions revealing that a billion dollars had passed through the Baltic States. Kaja Kallas’s words are now taken up by his detractors, who accuse him of doing the opposite
