🧵 In my address at IISS Shangri-La Dialogue #SLD23 I pointed out:

We may be oceans apart but security challenges in the Indo Pacific and Euro-Atlantic area are inseparable.

Aggression by a permanent member of UNSC against Ukraine is a threat that has global implications. 1/

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/kajakallas/status/1665224495442055169

Russia isn't typically thought of as a colonial power.

That is why we rarely hear about Soviet Russia’s colonial policy in Central and Eastern Europe.

But my own country Estonia went through Russia’s colonization for almost half a century, up until 1991. 2/

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/kajakallas/status/1665224498256265218

Soviet occupation for us meant freedom and independence lost.

It meant repressions, mass deportations, and killings.

Russian occupation meant exploiting our resources and economy.

This pattern of exploitation is similar to most countries who have suffered from colonialism. 3/

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/kajakallas/status/1665224501611704320

I recall this because it mirrors the playbook that the Kremlin is using in Ukraine today.

In fact, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a continuation of a colonialist land grab policy that many thought had ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. But it did not. 4/

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/kajakallas/status/1665224505336135681

Russia’s war against Ukraine has made it clear why countries in Central and Eastern Europe joined NATO.

The alliance doesn’t exist to threaten Russia: it is for defending its members from it. It exists to keep tens of millions from being enslaved and slaughtered by Russia. 5/

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/kajakallas/status/1665224508482162688