NATO BRACES ITSELF FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN'S POST-UKRAINE PLANS

In 2022, not long after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin claimed that Narva, like Kyiv, 'is historically part of Russia.'

- JOHN DOBSON

Imagine opening your bedroom window and looking nervously across the river at your neighbouring country. This is what residents of the city of Narva in Estonia have done every day since 22 February 2022, almost three years ago when President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine.

With just the width of the river separating them from Russia, the people of Narva are concerned that they're next on Putin's list in his quest to re-establish the Russian Empire. More than 80 percent of Narva's 56,000 inhabitants are ethnic Russians, a legacy of the centuries during which Narva was part first of the Russian empire and then of the Soviet Union before becoming independent.

Some 96 percent of Narva's population speak Russian and a third hold Russian passports.In 2022, not long after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin claimed that Narva, like Kyiv, "is historically part of Russia." Ethnic Russians, who make up almost a quarter of the population of Estonia, the northernmost of the three Baltic States, have become more integrated into society in the 33 years since the country became independent. As the USSR began to crumble under Gorbachev, the parliament of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic held a referendum on 9 May 1990, in which 78 percent of Estonians voted for independence, which was declared on 20 August 1991, just four months before the "crumble" ended in the total "collapse" of the Soviet Union. Estonians are well aware that in 2005, Putin described the collapse as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" catastrophe of the century" and believe that he is trying to re-create it, starting with Ukraine. Many Estonians believe that they are next on Putin's list.