Main narratives:
- General anti-government sentiments;
- Russophobic rhetoric.
Overview:
Last week, several emotional debates took place in Russian-language social media groups and communities about the appropriateness of allowing a song with a Soviet background to be performed during the New Year’s Eve TV concert of ETV+ (a Russian-language channel that is part of the Estonian National Broadcasting). The issue polarised many commentators, some of whom stated that ETV+ was contributing to the promotion of the Soviet era, which is very disturbing, especially now, given the geopolitical and ethno-linguistic tensions. These commentators also noted that the editor-in-chief of ETV+ is a citizen of the Russian Federation and speculated that this may have influenced the choice of concert repertoire. The other groups defended the choice of song, arguing that it didn’t promote Soviet themes, but appealed to human values and universal positive developments. Some of them claimed that Russophobia is spreading in Estonia if “good old songs” in Russian are so heavily criticised.
On 2 January, the Latvian airline Air Baltic announced the cancellation of 4,670 flights this summer. The news sparked a wave of criticism on social media directed at the Estonian authorities. The reasoning was simple: following the bankruptcy of Estonian airline Nordica, part of the political establishment claimed that Air Baltic would be able to provide flights on routes of strategic importance to Estonia. Now, following statements by Air Baltic representatives, critics have begun to accuse the authorities of incompetence and lack of a backup plan to ensure stable air links. Moreover, old accusations that the government was wasting Estonian taxpayers’ money on national airlines (the cases of Estonian Air and Nordica) have been revived in social media discussions.
