Great and increasing pressure imposed by the media and public opinion on Kaya Kalas, Prime Minister of Estonia, to resign from her post, due to her husband’s economic dealings with Russia, which is supposed to be subject to severe European sanctions due to the Ukraine war.
The Estonian Prime Minister’ husband owns a stake in a company that continues its business in Russia even after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Two prominent media outlets in Estonia have called on the prime minister to resign, while two opinion polls showed that the majority of respondents believed that the prime minister should resign.
Kalas adopts a hardline stance towards Russia, urging European companies to cut ties with Moscow, and is one of the most prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the European Union and NATO.
Estonia’s public broadcaster reported that Ervo Hallik, the prime minister’s husband, indirectly owns a 25% stake in a logistics company that provides services to a container plant in Russia owned by another Estonian company.
The Estonian prime minister said she didn’t have detailed knowledge about her husband’s business but believed her husband’s companies had done anything wrong.
She added, “They don’t even buy fuel from Russia so that no Euro will reach the hands of the Russians”.
