Is it true that Kaya Kallas asked Russians to take anti-Russian sanctions more seriously?

In March 2023, an appeal from the head of the Estonian government went viral on the Internet, in which she calls on Russian citizens not to ridicule political and economic measures directed against their country. We checked whether Callas said this.

As stated in the message, the Prime Minister of Estonia said: “Agreeing on each package of sanctions against Russia is a complex process that involves all members of the European Union. It takes weeks and months for new sanctions to be approved. Nevertheless, the Russians allow themselves to joke on the Internet about each new package of sanctions and openly mock our work. I really ask them to take this seriously and show some respect."

This news amused State Duma deputy and ex-world boxing champion Nikolai Valuev, who on March 25 in his social networks thanked Callas for “bringing glimpses of the Baltic sun into the gray spring everyday life of St. Petersburg.” The Estonian politician’s statement was reported “MK in Bryansk", "Bryansk news", "Mriya", Newsland, Aftershock, "I cried» and other resources. The news gained particular popularity on Telegram - it was spread by the channels "Sheikh Tamir"(175,000 views at the time of writing the analysis), "Cat Kostyan"(111,000), "Breaking news" (110,000) "Ukraine.ru"(94,000), "Ramzan! War! Sexton! Story"(83,000), "Federation"(67,000), "Breaking news!" (61,000) and "Russia 2.0"(58,000).

February 25, 2023 European Union approved another, already tenth package sanctions against Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory a year ago. 87 individuals and 34 legal entities were subject to restrictions. Estonia has traditionally been active in relation to sanctions measures - for example, it has made proposals to adopt eighth And ninth packages. And already on March 16, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country, Urmas Reinsalu called The European Union will develop a new package of anti-Russian sanctions, in which an important place will be given to the reduction of income from energy supplies. On March 23, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas spoke on this topic. Upon arrival in Brussels for the meeting of heads of state and government of the European Union, she called on do not ease sanctions against Russia, also declaringthat a new package of measures can be discussed, but it is worth focusing on measures to eliminate loopholes that allow you to bypass existing restrictions. Judging by the lack of information in authoritative sources, she did not make any calls to the Russians on this or previous days.

However, soon after the first news from Brussels appeared, the above quote attributed to Kaja Kallas began to spread across Russian-language Telegram channels. According to the TGStat service, the first statement by the Estonian Prime Minister published channel called “but my Yandex wallet” March 23 at 14:40 Moscow time. The description of the channel says that its texts are “a parody, a satire on political reality, only verified fakes.” This is far from the first time that jokes born on the channel are then spread across the Internet in all seriousness, and in at least two cases (“Verified” said about both) we were talking about words allegedly spoken by the same Kaya Callas. And here we are dealing with another satirical news that has gone viral - right up to the reaction of a State Duma deputy.

Cover photo: Flickr /euranet_plus

Satirical news

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on topic:

1. Is it true that the Polish Prime Minister called on Zelensky to temporarily transfer the territories of Western Ukraine to Poland?
2. Did the head of the European Commission say that she does not believe that the White House is involved in the Nord Stream explosions because of the “impeccable reputation” of the United States?
3. Is it true that a Ukrainian writer proposed compulsory wearing of a red star for Ukrainians who support Russia?