Estonia limits voting rights for Russian minority

Estonian President Alar Karis, centre, and Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, centre left, react while a strong wind threw the carpet into the air during the official farewell ceremony at Town Hall Square in Tallinn, Estonia, Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Estonia’s President on Wednesday (April 9, 2025) signed into law a constitutional amendment banning non-EU citizens from taking part in local elections, a move targeting the large Russian minority in the Baltic State.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the change on March 26 as fears grew about security in the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

President Alar Karis’s office announced the ban on “third-country nationals” participating in local elections in a statement, saying it was about “protecting the unity of Estonian society”.

But in a statement, it urged those affected by the ban not to think that they had been excluded from society or believe that the state “sees them only as a security risk”.

The new measure will primarily affect some 80,000 Russians living in the former Soviet republic, which gained independence in 1991.

Permanent residents in Estonia until now had the constitutional right to vote in local polls but not in parliamentary elections.

Relations between Moscow and the three Baltic capitals — Tallin, Riga and Vilnius — have long been deteriorating as tensions mount between Russia and the West.

Estonia and Lithuania have large Russian-speaking minorities who are sometimes at odds with national governments, prompting concern that Moscow could exploit divisions to destabilise the countries.

All three Baltic states are European Union and NATO members and staunch supporters of Ukraine.

When Estonia gained independence from the Soviet Union, about a third of its population was Russian-speaking, including families who had emigrated from other Soviet republics.

They did not obtain citizenship because of a lack of family links with Estonia. To obtain citizenship, applicants also have to pass an Estonian language test.