[drysine]

>who refused to assimilate into the independent country

"Cultural genocide may also involve forced assimilation, as well as the suppression of a language or cultural activities that do not conform to the destroyer's notion of what is appropriate" [0]

>are the ones holding most of the blame here

Blaming the victim. Classic.

>Estonia is an exemplar in upholding human rights since regaining independence.

You must be kidding. Or you just don't count Russians as human.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_genocide

[watersb]

My hot tale on the ground in 1990 was that Russia treated Estonia like an imperial colony. Forced mass relocation of Russian citizens into the country after World War II, all children taught a Russian curriculum in the (public, free, Soviet) schools.

The doctrine of cultural assimilation was at that time understood to be incorporation into a larger Russian society.

"The Singing Revolution" tells an Estonian side of this dynamic.

https://youtu.be/Ny8uCgJX_-g?is=dvTndU6nCx4LsIqz

[drysine]

>that Russia treated Estonia like an imperial colony

You mean extracting resources, not developing local industry, especially heavy industry, and forcing to buy all the staff from metropolis?

[mopsi]

What a load of nonsense.

When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the citizens of the USSR had to choose their future. If they were in countries that declared independence from the USSR as it was falling apart, they could become citizens of those countries. They could also apply for the citizenship of Russian Federation, because RF had declared itself a successor state to the USSR. By default, those who did nothing, became aliens, which is a funny legal term for people without citizenship.

A shitload of Russians outside of Russia did nothing out of misplaced belief that the Soviet Union would return any day now, and they remain without any citizenship.

The irony is that all sorts of human rights organizations see stateless people as horrible tragedy, but the stateless Russians prefer it, because being an alien grants certain privileges on both sides (like visa-free travel in both Europe and Russia) while simultaneously exempting from certain duties like mandatory conscription (again, on both sides). In some regards, both countries treat you as a citizen; in others, both treat you as a foreigner. If you have regular business on both sides of the border, then the alien passport is the best travel document to have.

And if you don't want it anymore, all you have to do is demonstrate B1 level language proficiency and knowledge of the constitution to get a citizenship.