DISINFO: Estonia again on the way to war against Russian language
SUMMARY
The Estonian Reform Party has presented in Parliament a bill on the complete elimination of Russian-language education in schools and kindergartens. Estonia is purposefully and consistently being built in a way in which, contrary to the constitution and ratified international conventions, the interests and rights of national minorities are ignored. The situation is getting worse every year.
RESPONSE
The Kremlin and the pro-Kremlin media have for a long time used disinformation narratives that portray Baltic states as dictatorial regimes practicing discrimination against Russian minorities and forcing Russians to speak local languages. The draft bill in question has not been approved by the Estonian parliament. At the moment, in Estonia, students traditionally learn at least two foreign languages in school. According to the national curricula, students of Estonian-medium schools can learn English, French, German or Russian as the first (A) foreign language. The majority of students study English as their first foreign language. Students of Russian-medium schools study Estonian as their first foreign language (Estonian as the second language). It should be noted that according to the The Estonian Human Development Report "demographic developments together with the school choices of Russian families reduced both the number of Russian schools in Estonia as well as the share of students attending Russian schools." See earlier disinformation cases alleging that Latvia instigates linguistic genocide against Russian-speaking citizens, that genocide against ethnic Russians / Russian-speaking population in Anglo-Saxon-ruled Latvia is possible, that Lithuania is temporarily NATO-occupied territory ruled by non-Lithuanians, and that Baltic states' policies are similar to Third Reich's.