Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.
Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the U.N.'s information department....MORE
Estonia is the bit of land just north of Latvia, with Russia immediately east.
Just as interesting geopolitically, at least as far as Poles and Lithuanians are concerned, is the tiny bit of Russia centered on the city of Kaliningrad.
Kind of reminds one of Hitler and the Danzig Corridor, as it was then known, now Gdansk.
