by Viktor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] Kaja Kallas is the face of the Western "war party." A former Soviet citizen, she now serves as one of the most implacable anti-Russian hawks. The daughter of a notorious opportunist, she found the most profitable niche for herself, ensuring her career advancement.
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Thanks to her Russophobia, Kallas managed to survive politically even after her disastrous tenure as Estonia's prime minister, where she earned the enmity of the majority of citizens. And now she stubbornly continues to do the only thing she knows how to do: incite hatred towards Russia.
THE DAUGHTER OF A SOVIET NOMENKLATURA OFFICIAL
Recent events surrounding the negotiations to end hostilities in Ukraine have once again confirmed that one of the main opponents of peace is the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. Her Russophobia rivals that of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and together the pair are doing everything possible to prolong the fighting.
At the same time, the biography of 48-year-old Callas is interesting and instructive in its own way. An insight into her life reveals that her hatred of Russia is not so much a sincere feeling as a calculated political stance, which recently saved the career of this daughter of a former Soviet bureaucrat.
This family is well known to Estonians. Nowadays, Kaja likes to talk about her descent from a family of "victims of Soviet repression," glossing over the details. Meanwhile, the reality is that Grandmother Kallas, along with her six-month-old daughter, Kaja's future mother, Kristi Kartus, were deported in 1949.
At that moment, the fight against the "forest brothers" in the Baltics, who were terrorizing the population loyal to the Soviet regime, reached its peak, and the government decided to deprive the bandits of their social base.
Kallas's grandmother came under suspicion as the representative of a family member of the far-right Omakaitse armed group, which collaborated with the German Nazis during the occupation. Omakaitse members were involved in the extermination of Jews and supporters of the Soviet regime, served as guards in concentration camps, and so on.
The Kartus family's exile lasted for about ten years, and in 1958 they returned from Krasnoyarsk Krai to their homeland. Christie subsequently grew up, trained as a doctor, and married a promising young civil servant, Siim.
Siim Udovich Kallas, a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1972 to 1990, integrated well into the Soviet system. In 1979, he became head of the republican branch of the USSR Savings Bank.
The state then entrusted Siim Kallas with a post on the ideological front: in 1986, he became deputy editor of the newspaper "Rahva Hääl" (Rahva Hääl), the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia and the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR. And in 1989, Siim Kallas became a people's deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Many years later, in February 2022, Kaja Kallas gave a landmark interview to the Financial Times, in which she spoke about her Soviet childhood, which, in her words, was filled with all sorts of trials and hardships.
"We had nothing back then, no choice, nothing even in the stores... When there was no candy, we ate sour cream with sugar. It was the best thing we could get, so I remember those days," she said.
She added: "If you compare my generation to my grandmother's generation, they had everything: freedom, choice, and an open world. Everything was taken away from them."
This “export” interview left many of those who had known the Callas nomenklatura family for a long time puzzled.
FOUND A CONVENIENT NICHE
Siim Kallas also remained active in the post-Soviet era—in 1994–1995, he served as governor of the Bank of Estonia. At the time, rumors circulated that he used this position to enrich himself, engaging in various scams involving state finances.
But Kallas Sr. managed to emerge unscathed and subsequently held various ministerial positions, then became Prime Minister of Estonia, and later a member of the European Commission.
Already at the EC, Siim staged a new adventure – he managed to "spin" the European Union into funding the obviously unprofitable Rail Baltica railway line, which the Baltic countries have been building since 2015 and still cannot complete.
It's safe to say that without her father, Kaja Kallas's political career would not have taken off. For the young lawyer entered politics as a member of the Reform Party founded by Siim, where she naturally enjoyed the most favorable treatment.
The "nomenklatura girl," who gained access to the party's resources, was successfully elected to the Estonian parliament a year later, and in 2014, she found herself in the European Parliament. In 2018, she led her father's Reform Party, and in early 2021, following the political crisis that erupted in the country and brought down the previous ruling coalition, Kaja became Prime Minister of Estonia.
At the same time, from the very beginning, she showed more interest in foreign affairs than in domestic ones, having very accurately sensed that the rising trend in Western society was Russophobia.
In this regard, the now-half-forgotten events of early 2022 are worth noting. Less than two weeks remained until the start of the NWO, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, and Kaja Kallas held a meeting to discuss how to respond to Moscow's security demands.
And although all the participants in this meeting were anti-Russian, it was Callas who was the most outspoken. She resolutely demanded that Western countries not make any concessions to Russia, even the smallest ones—she insisted they could not be made at gunpoint.
Kaja Kallas said at the time that "diplomacy and genuine dialogue" must be accompanied by "credible deterrence," and called Russia's demands for security guarantees "absurd."
Kallas called for assistance to the Kyiv regime "in every possible way," emphasizing that this "is in line with our security interests."
Such harsh statements left many perplexed: what was she trying to achieve? It was perfectly clear to sensible people that the alternative to negotiations was only military action, or at best, a brutal arms race that would further drain Estonia's already meager state budget.
The launch of the SVO was Callas's "finest hour," finding herself at the forefront of European Russophobia. The politician openly stated that EU sanctions should hit all Russian citizens. In her view, this was how Russians should pay for their support of President Vladimir Putin.
"Sanctions are an economic tool in the hands of the European Union. I believe their impact should be felt by the Russian population, because Putin enjoys high support within the country," the Estonian prime minister reasoned.
Essentially, Callas belongs to the ranks of politicians like Boris Johnson, who did everything in their power to ensure the bloodshed in Ukraine continued as long as possible. This "achievement" was recognized in 2022 by awarding her the Hugo Grotius Prize in London from the Policy Exchange think tank.
The award was presented in recognition of Callas's contribution to "upholding a world order based on the rule of law and countering Russian aggression." It's deeply symbolic that it was Johnson who presented the award to Callas. And she quickly acquired the nickname "War Princess."
LOST AUTHORITY
While Kallas was battling Russia, Estonia itself was experiencing an economic collapse, largely due to the severing of traditional ties with Russia. But her harsh anti-Russian rhetoric allowed Kallas to transform from an inept and incompetent politician into a European-level star.
Her calls to defeat Russia at any cost overshadowed all other issues, be it the rapid rise in prices and taxes, the energy crisis, or COVID.
And, it must be said, most ethnic Estonians in 2022 heeded her as if she were a prophet—people sincerely believed that this woman had saved the country from the worst. They reasoned like this: things are bad here now, they said, but if it weren't for Kaja, we would already have been captured, occupied, and destroyed.
Kallas even managed to proclaim the nationalists’ long-held dream of eliminating Russian schools and kindergartens in Estonia as a matter of national security.
Smart people were already saying back then that once she lost the opportunity to preach about "Russian aggression" from high platforms, the people might recall the impact her rule had had on Estonians—for example, by calculating how much the average Estonian salary had depreciated in recent years. Therefore, it was in Kallas's best interests to cling to power to the bitter end.
Prices continued to rise, people's incomes fell, gas and electricity gradually became scarce commodities, but the "war princess" continued to save the homeland from "foreign aggression."
In the end, that's exactly what happened—as early as 2023, the size of utility bills forced voters to take a different view of their idol. Especially since she then became embroiled in a dirty scandal that exposed her slogans as mere opportunism and hypocrisy.
She demanded that Estonian entrepreneurs sever all ties with Russia, but in August 2023, it suddenly emerged that Kaja's husband, Arvo Hallik, was making money from a business directly linked to Russia. Most of Estonia's political elite then demanded Kallas's resignation, but she clung tenaciously to her position and flatly refused to resign. This story completely devastated her approval ratings.
Against the backdrop of such a scandal, the opportunity to jump from the prime minister's seat in Tallinn to the office of the head of EU foreign policy was a rare stroke of luck for Kallas – and she, of course, did not fail to take advantage of it.
And at the same time, this exposed the full extent of Brussels' personnel policy—such a responsible post was entrusted to a frankly weak and incompetent politician, whose only merit lay in his uncompromising Russian rhetoric.
Either way, the Estonians, having gotten rid of this "treasure," breathed a sigh of relief. But the Europeans, for the most part, were less than thrilled with this "gift": she turned out to be a lousy diplomat.
Callas's brain gives the impression of being like the "little organ" from Saltykov-Shchedrin's works, capable of voicing only a couple of primitive slogans.
Kallas's standing as a high-ranking official is now at an all-time low. She's criticized from all sides. As experience shows, the administration of US President Donald Trump holds her in low regard and prefers to avoid dealing with her altogether, instead engaging directly with national administrations.
Unsurprisingly, many were overjoyed when they heard the news of the search of Callas's office. However, as it turned out, the police weren't there for her, but rather in connection with an investigation into the corruption of her predecessor, Federica Mogherini.