Brief excerpt from Estonian World:

Rainer Saks, a former chief of the Estonian foreign intelligence and a former chief of staff of the Estonian foreign ministry, said the Russian leadership thinks the Western countries are weak and therefore Russia hopes it will end Ukraine’s Western integration.

“The way Russia operates towards Ukraine comes from the fact that it regards the Western reactions essentially non-existent,” Saks said on a radio programme called “Vikerhommik”. “Russia thinks it can act and it regards the Western countries as weak. And the question is not whether the Western states actually are weak, the question is how Russia sees them.”

He said it was a paradox of a historical window that Russia’s leadership has defined the current time window as the ending of Ukraine’s integration towards the West. “And I’m not talking about stopping it, but finishing. Ending forever. That’s why this is happening.” Saks also noted on the Estonian Public Broadcasting radio programme that if the Western countries impose sanctions on Russia, then the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is prepared to strategically suffer through them.

Brief bio:

Mr. Rainer Saks served as the Estonian Secretary of State from 2015-2020. From 1999 to 2001, Saks worked as an adviser to the foreign minister. From 2001 through 2006 he served as the deputy coordination director at the coordination unit of the Government Office. From 2006 to 2011 Saks headed the Office of the President, while simultaneously heading the council of the International Center for Defense and Security (from 2007-2011). From 2011 Rainer Saks held the office of the Director General of the Information Board. Mr. Saks is a member of the Management Board at CybExer Technologies, a NATO-awarded Estonian cybersecurity company.

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