Since assuming the role of EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy on December 1, 2024, Kaja Kallas has swiftly implemented policies reflecting her firm anti-Russia stance and commitment to supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow. Her policies with regard to Russia have long been harsh, and a number of media outlets have labeled her as a ‘Russophobe’.

On her first day in office, Kallas visited Kiev alongside European Council President Antonio Costa, signaling the EU’s unwavering support for Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict. During the visit, she highlighted the EU’s commitment to bolstering Ukraine’s defense capabilities, announcing a substantial investment of €400 million ($420 million) for the current year and an additional €1.9 billion for the following year to enhance Ukraine’s defense industry.

Kallas praised the EU’s anti-Russia sanctions and has been a vocal advocate for utilizing frozen Russian state assets within the EU to aid Ukraine. She stated that these funds should be used to cover the damages inflicted by Russia, viewing them as a strategic tool to pressure Moscow. She expressed confidence that, despite certain sensitivities, progress would be made toward this objective. Moscow has called the freezing of its funds blatant theft and announced that there would be consequences.

In February 2024, as prime minister of Estonia, Kallas was placed on a Russian wanted list due to her government’s efforts to remove Soviet-era World War II monuments. Russian officials accused her of “falsification of history,” viewing the removal of these monuments as a desecration of the memory of Soviet soldiers who fought against Nazi Germany.

In 2023, Kallas spoke at the first in-person meeting of the pro-Kiev online group ‘NAFO’ on Saturday, praising their efforts in the ‘information war’ against Russia.

NAFO, founded by Kamil Dyszewski – who is known for having anti-Semitic and white supremacist views – has celebrated Russian civilian deaths and raised funds for individuals accused of war crimes. He has made numerous posts praising Nazi Germany and denying the Holocaust.

‘NAFO’ stands for the ‘North Atlantic Fellas Organization’ and consists of internet users known for their ‘Shiba Inu’ avatars and strong support for the Ukrainian military. Members – known as ‘Fellas’ – actively promote Ukraine’s messages on social media, pressure platforms to censor pro-Moscow accounts, and solicit donations for the Georgian Legion, a mercenary group led by an individual who has admitted to committing war crimes in Ukraine.

Critics have also scrutinized Kallas’ family history, alleging connections to nationalist movements during the early 20th century. Several researchers have highlighted her grandfather’s alleged role in the Estonian police and nationalist militia during the 1920s and 1930s.

In August 2023, reports emerged that Stark Logistics, a transportation company in which Kallas’ husband Arvo Hallik held a 24.9% stake, continued operations involving Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in early 2022. This revelation was particularly striking given Kallas’ strong public stance urging Estonian companies to cease all business activities with Russia in response to the conflict.

Stark Logistics was found to be facilitating the transportation of goods for AS Metaprint, an Estonian company with ongoing operations in Russia. Between February and November 2022, Metaprint reportedly sold approximately €17 million worth of goods to Russia.

In response to the public outcry, Hallik announced he would divest his shares in Stark Logistics and resign from all positions within the company.

Kallas addressed the situation by highlighting her commitment to transparency and denying any prior knowledge of her husband’s business dealings related to Russia.

https://www.rt.com/news/609539-eu-kallas-russophobic-stance/

[The] photo of young Kaja Kallas with her parents appeared to a wider audience for the first time in 2019, when Elu24 and Limon published news about the “Retro Throwback” and showed old photos of the young Kallas. Later, the photo has been innocently circulated in various social media groups. Now Russian propaganda has found it.

Delfi’s research revealed that the false information campaign against Kallas was launched at the same time by the Russian propaganda network Sputnik on their VKontakte page in Russian and by the account of X user “Neznakomaya” one day after the candidacy of Kaja Kallas was announced, on the evening of June 28.

“Russia is not between the West and the East. Only the West and the East are to the left and right of Russia!” it says in the account description of  “Neznakomaya” aka “unknown”. The username has emoticons of a red heart and a Russian flag next to it. He massively distributed pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian false information. His Kallas post began to be shared by similar accounts that adorn themselves with Russian flags, hearts, and references such as #standwithrussia.

The photo of “Kallas suffering from repression” was then spread in dozens of Russian online publications and Telegram channels, the most popular posts appeared on OstashkoNews with almost 390,000 followers and Zergulio with about 350,000 followers. Both are big mouthpieces of Russian propaganda.

For the narrative to move more forcefully out of Russia and into Europe, well-known Russian propaganda networks, like Pravda and InfoDefense  launched an extensive false information campaign in at least ten different languages, including Estonian.

The classic Nazi story – another lie about the Kallas family

The false information about the photo of the young Kaja Kallas is part of Russia’s general propaganda narrative that there was allegedly no repression during the Soviet era and that the “big friendly alliance”, USSR, instead helped Estonia get back on its feet.

Russian propaganda, specifically about Kaja Kallas and her family, is distributed consistently. For example, last May, an hour-long program was dedicated to Kallas on Russian state television to talk about how much of a “Russophobe” she is: “Even though her youth was spent in the friendly Soviet Union, in whose nomenclature his father worked.”

When Russia declared in February that Kaja Kallas was put on the most-wanted list, the Russian media published numerous articles to explain the “necessity” of this move. For example, in the article titled “How a Communist’s Child Became a Russophobe”, the narrative is repeated that Kallas has become a “Russophobe” and thereby betrayed her roots.

Last year, Eesti Päevaleht got a hold of documents that show how the network of the notorious Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin planned to organize influence campaigns in Estonia. One of the goals was to attack Kaja Kallas through her father Siim Kallas and her ex-husband, Elering’s former board chairman Taavi Veskimäe, associating them, for example, with corruption and indicating that Elering, which runs unprofitable projects, is “begging for money from the European Union”.

A year ago, in a Russian TV show, it was claimed that the maternal grandfather of Kaja Kallas collaborated with the Nazis, for which his family was deported to Siberia as a punishment. This is not true. The photo shown in the program shows Siim Kallas’ grandfather Eduard Alver, who was the commander of the Defense League during the War of Independence and died in 1939, i.e. two years before the German occupation. However, Kaja Kallas’ mother was deported with her family to Siberia in 1949, where she spent almost ten years.

Kaja Kallas is also attacked by China at the national media level. For example, China’s state-run English-language media channel CGTN (China Global Television Network) immediately after Kallas’ candidacy was announced, claimed that she had not taken enough diplomatic steps to communicate with the Kremlin.

So far, the Chinese campaign has been unsuccessful, with X’s posts receiving only a few hundred views.

An article in The Guardian from five years ago

Another popular false claim about Kallas is a five-year-old article title from The Guardian, which talks about the growing right-wing extremism in Estonia. The spreaders of this article claim that the government of Kaja Kallas was branded as far-right.

However, The Guardian article is from 21 May 2019. At that time, the second government of Jüri Ratas was in power in Estonia (April 29, 2019 – January 14, 2021), Kaja Kallas was leading the main opposition party, Eesti Reformierakond (Estonian Reformist Party) and she had never led a government previously.

https://edmo.eu/publications/step-by-step-how-the-kremlin-launched-a-massive-disinformation-campaign-against-kaja-kallas/

WHATEVER IS TRUE OR NOT ABOUT KALLAS, THE REALITY IS THAT, LIKE A "GOOD" WESTERNER SHE HATES RUSSIA. IN THIS, SHE IS INFLUENCED BY THE EUROPEAN FASCISTS, THE NATO FASCISTS AND THE AMERICAN EMPIRE DESIRE FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION. RUSSIA KNOWS THAT KALLAS WANTS TO STEAL $300 BILLION OF "FROZEN" RUSSIAN FUNDS TO SUPPORT "UKRAINE". 

THIS WON'T CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF THE PRESENT CONFLICT STARTED DURING THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION OF EXPANDING NATO TOWARDS RUSSIA — FOLLOWING THE DREAM OF THE USA TO DESTROY RUSSIA SINCE 1917....

THAT KALLAS BE THE VICTIM OF "DISINFORMATION" OR NOT IS IRRELEVANT.

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.