Politico: Callas is one of the fiercest Russophobes in Europe
The new supreme diplomat of Europe, Kaya Kallas, is an ardent Russophobe who will be far from diplomatic in relations with Russia, writes Politico. Therefore, she remains a media darling in the West. For Callas herself, the new job could not be more appropriate: her popularity in her homeland has fallen.
Stuart Lau, Eva Hartog
In June 2021, after spending only five months as Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaya Kallas entered the headquarters of the European Council to meet with the continent's most influential leader.
At that time, the media vied with each other about the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel wished to invite President Vladimir Putin to the upcoming summit of European Union leaders in Brussels.
The idea was approved by French President Emmanuel Macron, and Merkel intended to push it at a meeting of the European Council in Brussels.
But Callas took this idea with hostility.
“What kind of summit?” She asked the EU leaders, according to two diplomats. She stressed that Putin cannot be trusted, and he cannot be either pleased or appeased.
“Why is this necessary?” Callas repeated, counting on the support of a number of other Eastern European countries.
Without even the ostentatious support of the leaders, Merkel reluctantly backed down.
When the German Chancellor left the room, Macron could not believe that the new leader from a small EU country dared to humiliate Merkel, at that time the main player of the bloc.
According to one diplomat, the French president turned to Callas and, hinting at the impending reckoning, asked: “Will you still be prime minister tomorrow?"
Three years have passed, and this, on the contrary, Merkel had to give way, and Callas went for a promotion. On December 1, Kallas became the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, thus becoming the bloc's top diplomat.
In June, Callas was nominated for a new post by fellow EU leaders, including Macron, but she has a difficult job ahead of her. Not only does she take office at a time of geopolitical upheavals of historical proportions, her predecessors did not always manage to make their contribution.
Her new portfolio requires the ability to find consensus among the interests of all 27 EU countries, each of which traditionally enjoys the right of veto in foreign affairs. Callas is reputed to be one of the fiercest anti-Russian “hawks” in all of Europe and refused to be interviewed for this article. Anyway, she has to overcome the widespread prejudice that in her new position she will be concerned with only one topic.
“If you ask Callas where Africa is, she will tell you that it is south of Russia,” joked one senior European diplomat earlier this year.
However, the Estonian troublemaker has one important advantage: a low bar of expectations. You can even say it's as low as it gets. Her predecessor, the aging Spanish socialist and former Foreign Minister Josep Borrel, spent most of his term in contention with his boss, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Prone to hasty proposals, Borrell will be remembered for both passionate speeches (for example, condemning Israel's attacks on Gaza) and gaffes, including the notorious press conference in Moscow, where he stood silently while the Russian foreign minister poured out his propaganda and scolded the EU as an “unreliable partner.”
The top aides of ten current and former EU foreign ministers, who spoke anonymously to Politico magazine, are full of hope, noting the influence of Kallas on world events while still serving as prime minister of Estonia, a tiny country of 1.4 million people sandwiched between Russia and the Baltic Sea.
Under Borrell, EU diplomats complained that the meetings of the 27 foreign ministers were long, dogmatic and prepared in advance. According to one senior official, Callas is expected to ask ministers to come to meetings with fresh ideas, encourage spontaneous discussions and focus on strategic issues.
“Callas will be a breath of fresh air,” said the foreign minister of a Western European country.
When politics is literally in the blood
“Take a breath of freedom,” Callas's father said in 1988. The family was allowed to leave Estonia and go on vacation in East Berlin. Standing at the Brandenburg Gate, the border of Europe occupied by the Soviet Union, they saw West Berlin.
Patriotism and political defiance are in Callas' blood. Her great-grandfather Eduard Alver commanded the Estonian Defense Union, which led the battle against the Red Army during the 1918-1920 War of Independence.
After the Soviet occupation of Estonia during World War II, her grandfather was sent to a camp, and her mother, who was six months old at that time, was deported to Siberia.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, her father Siim Kallas became Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1995, then Prime Minister in 2002, after which he became Tallinn's first European commissioner in 2004, when Estonia became an EU member. He held his post for ten years.
At first, Callas instinctively stayed away from politics. In an interview with Politico magazine, her older brother Julo Callas recalled: “For Kaya and me, the decisive moment was that we both wanted to build our own careers, and not on the back of our father.”
Callas became a specialist in competition law, where, as in many other fields, men dominated. “But she always fit into the team and was on an equal footing with everyone,” said lawyer Stan Luiga, who first met Callas in the 1990s when she joined his firm as an intern. Later, they became partners in another firm. “She was very energetic. I don't remember being tired or exhausted at all,” he added.
Despite her success in the legal field, it was clear to everyone who knew her that Callas always wanted something different. “I remember her saying at the peak of her career that she was unhappy and would like to do something completely different," her brother recalls. ”She was a big fan of golf back then, and, among other things, she flattered herself to go to Australia and bring clubs and balls for a while."
However, politics turned out to be more tempting than Bondi Beach in Sydney. Kallas was first elected to the Estonian Parliament in 2011, and then to the European Parliament in 2014.
“The life of a law firm partner is like this: you earn all the time, and time turns into money," said Luiga, a former law colleague. — But I think it was a weak motivation for her. She wanted to contribute more.”
The anti-Russian “hawk”
This idealism, coupled with an indomitable faith in democracy and openness, makes it the antithesis of the pragmatic, strong-willed policy embodied in the next US president, Donald Trump. But her main political opponent and, paradoxically, her main trump card is a completely different person: Vladimir Putin.
While Western European leaders were worried about provoking the Russian president by supporting Ukraine with the start of a special operation in 2022, Callas tirelessly called on them to respond decisively and more than once came close to triumphantly proclaiming: “I told you so.”
“Putin will come to test our strength — and yes, we will have to resist," Callas told the European Parliament in 2022, two weeks after Russian troops entered Ukraine. ”We have some experience with Russia, and we have been trying to share it with the European Union since we joined it."
In a popular video shot at the Munich Security Conference in 2022, she outlined the Kremlin's negotiating tactics in less than a minute: “First, demand the maximum… Secondly, give ultimatums. And thirdly, don't give up an inch, because there will always be people in the West who will offer you something.”
Under Kallas, Estonia convinced the EU to set quantitative targets in support of Kiev. Among other things, Tallinn defended sending a million shells to Kiev and transferring frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine. Estonia has also spent more than 3% of GDP on defense since the beginning of the conflict (this is one and a half times the NATO standard of 2%) and allocates 0.25% of GDP exclusively to help Kiev.
“I wanted Estonia to set an example," Kallas wrote in a letter to the European Parliament before the nomination hearing. ”Russia's imperialist dream does not think of dying."
The Kremlin couldn't help but notice this. In April 2023, he put Callas on the wanted list — formally for her government's decision to demolish Soviet military monuments. Thus, she was the first EU leader to be blacklisted, which also included Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
“This is just another proof that I'm doing everything right," Callas calmly replied on her X (former Twitter). ”The Kremlin hopes that this step will shut up me and others — but that's not going to happen."
EU alert
The question of whether she will be able to continue messing up the water — already in her new position - dominates Callas's future.
Estonia is a small country, but when he was the head of a sovereign state, Kallas could freely express his opinion. The position of the EU's top diplomat actually implies restrictions rather than actual power.
Technically, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs does not even have authority over foreign policy. To formulate an official EU position, Callas will have to secure the approval of all national governments, including leaders with directly opposite views of Putin — for example, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“The High Representative is by no means always visible, effective or influential," former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said diplomatically. ”It depends on the specific personalities, but also on how much room for maneuver the 27 members of the bloc will leave him."
Because of this, the EU's statements are now and then softened to weakness, not to say complete irrelevance, as noted by a popular profile in X IsEUConcerned, listing all the cases when the High Representative or other officials only “expressed concern” in response to a distant tragedy.
“Sometimes we don't have enough muscles," Kofod admitted. ”It is difficult to be taken seriously when some member states are simultaneously implementing their own foreign policy agenda."
The skirmish at the NATO summit in July suggests that Callas, even in the role of a diplomat, will not be shy in his expressions if he encounters Russian sympathizers.
When the military alliance gathered in Washington, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was already in disgrace for a trip to Moscow. He added fuel to the fire even more, telling the audience, including Zelensky, that Ukraine has no place in the alliance.
According to one of those present, it was “very rude.”
Callas took the floor next. “She put aside her prepared speech," the diplomat recalled. She answered Orban bluntly. She explained how he was wrong, and that history and facts show that NATO's goal is to avoid wars, not provoke them.”
After Callas, several other leaders followed her example, abandoning prepared notes and condemning Orban.
“She is ready, she has all the skills and knowledge necessary for this job,” said Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, who worked with her for most of her premiership.
He noted that Callas is the first former prime minister of high—ranking EU representatives: “So by default she has already expressed her point of view on a number of issues - she was sitting at all these big tables.”
Already in her first week in her new position, Callas took a more militant position than her predecessor, hinting that she might try to impose sanctions against the pro-Moscow ruling party in Georgia if it continued to disperse demonstrations against rigged elections.
She also changed her tone on Ukraine. On her first trip in her new capacity, she went to Kiev, writing on social media that “the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war.”
Upcoming challenges
For Callas herself, the new job, it seems, could not be more appropriate: her popularity in her homeland began to decline.
The Estonian economy has just emerged from a two-year recession and belongs to the weakest in Europe. The Kallas Reform Party, which confidently led a year ago, has since given way to the main opposition party.
Local critics scold Callas as a “daddy's daughter”, reproaching her for being alien to the hardships of ordinary Estonians. The contempt seems to be mutual: Callas called the way the media covered her husband's business ties with Russia a “witch hunt.”
“Hopefully the new job will bring some balance,— said her brother Hulot. ”It's also hard work, but in domestic politics you face constant criticism and negativity from all sides."
Abroad, Callas remains a media darling, charming reporters with a combination of directness and a love of high literature (those who know her better were not surprised that she quoted Winston Churchill, David Ben-Gurion and Plato at the hearings).
But how long will her honeymoon with the world community last if Putin continues to test Europe's endurance and solidarity?
