TALLINN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2019) Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said Friday she supported sanctions against Russia and wanted to discuss them with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their upcoming meeting.
Kaljulaid will arrive in Moscow on April 18 to attend the opening of the renovated Estonian Embassy. Tallinn has reported that Kaljulaid wants to meet with Putin during her stay. According to the Russian president's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, Moscow did get the request from Estonia, and is now getting ready for negotiations.
"We will definitely discuss complicated topics such as the implementation of the Minsk agreements or sanctions against Russia that are usually considered by the leaders of the other EU states. Estonia is a state that supports the prolongation of the sanctions," the president said, adding that the agenda of her visit was still being prepared and would be approved next week.
The Estonian leader also said that she was also going to discuss the situations in Georgia and Ukraine with the Russian president.
A member of the Estonian Conservative People's Party and new Estonian Parliament speaker, Henn Polluaas, who was denied entry to Russia in 2018, has condemned the president's intention to visit Russia. So did the former Estonian foreign minister, Marina Kaljurand, and other Estonian politicians.
However, the president said that she saw no reasons not to meet with Vladimir Putin.
"Many leading EU politicians meet with Putin," she said.
According to Russian Ambassador to Estonia Aleksander Petrov, Kersti Kaljulaid's upcoming visit to Moscow will open a new chapter in relations between the neighboring nations, which lacked a dialogue at the highest level.
Relations between Russia and a number of Western countries, including Estonia, have deteriorated due to the situations in Ukraine and around Crimea. After the peninsula joined Russia, the West imposed sanctions on Moscow. Russia retaliated with a trade embargo.
