Putin aims to bring back lost colonies of USSR with Ukraine war: Estonia FM

Foreign Minister of Estonia, Margus Tsahkna said on Friday that the Russian President Vladimir Putin want to bring back lost colonies of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and want to occuply Poland and then Finland.

"Putin had an idea about a special operation for the six days. Instead of six days of special operation, what Putin planned, now we have like two years full scale war within all the horrible things. And it is not just a military conflict. We know that more than 20,000 kids has been deported to Russia. And all the awful things," he said.

"Putin has said already years ago, what is his plan. Restoration of imperium. So this is Russia wants to get back lost colonies. This is exactly what it is. And it didn't start, like two years ago. It started already with Georgia 2008. Georgia is partly occupied. And with Ukraine, it started 2014. And now it's a full scale war ongoing. And how we see from our perspective as a bordering country, and we were occupied 50 years from Soviet Union as well, is that Russia wants to get back the colonies. They want to get back as well. Baltic states, they want to get back Poland, they want to get back Finland and so on," he added.

The comments were made at a session of the Raisina Dialogue, titled 'Back to the Future: A New Era of Conflict in Europe?' in New Delhi in which the participants discussed the impacts and goals of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

D. Bala Venkatesh Verma, Former Indian envoy to Russia also underlined the contribution of multiple countries to support Ukraine in the war torn region and said that there is still a shortfalls in defence and commitments.

"Ukrainian resistance is still very strong. European support, USD 52 billion was put together. European unity on Ukraine is still strong, but it is taking more and more effort to put that unity together. NATO unity is there. There is a debate in Washington that is brewing to an extent that we will wait to see. NATO has been expanded, but not necessarily leading to enhancement of its capabilities," he said.

"There are huge shortfalls in its defence, in its commitments. NATO is very uneven. Those countries sitting on the panel have all crossed the 2% of GDP. The United States does 3.49%, Poland does 3.9%, Estonia does 2.73%, Latvia does 2.2%, Romania does 2.44%. All of them above two. But you also have France, which is 1.9, Germany 1.57, Spain 1.28. And the very faraway but most vociferous on Ukraine. Canada does 1.38," he added.

Additionally, Luminita Odobescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Romania said, "Two years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia invaded a sovereign country, our neighbour. This was unexpected, unjustified, unnecessary act of aggression. This is act that points to imperialist."

The panel discussion was mainly focused to discuss the aspect that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine plunged Europe into conflict, new defence, security, and diplomatic endeavours have begun across the continent. Twentieth-century security arrangements like NATO are being reinvigorated, and the transatlantic alliance appears more important than ever.

The Global South, meanwhile, is hesitant to become a party to another European conflict and is instead seeking ways to mitigate its spill-over effects. Most importantly, the EU and its member states are re-evaluating themselves as military, security and geopolitical players.

Raisina Dialogue is India's flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community.

The ninth edition of Raisina Dialogue commenced on Wednesday and today will mark the final day of the summit.

It is being organised by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the Chief Guest and keynote speaker of the summit. He, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Raisina Dialogue here on Wednesday evening.