One of the highlights of this article: "He could also be a skillful negotiator, notably in 1994 when he drank
Russia's president, Boris Yeltsin, into an acquiescent stupor at talks
in the Kremlin. That secured a deal on the full withdrawal of Russian
soldiers from Estonia."
Despite Meri's skill in outmaneuvering the Russians, some suspected that Meri and his father were collaborators with the Soviets since Meri enjoyed unusual travel privileges and was a Merited Writer of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.
These suspicions were unfounded however. Meri brazenly hooked up a Finnish mobile phone antenna in his backyard creating the first independent link to the outside world. He did so while he was foreign minister of Soviet Estonia, risking being sent back on the next train to Siberia. No wonder the penetration rates of mobile phone usage exceed 80% today in Estonia.
In another example of Meri's anti-soviet stance, he threw out Lenin's works when he moved into this new office and locked away a hot-line telephone from Moscow in a cupboard. "It rings sometimes, but I don't answer it," he said. Obviosly the Kremlin didn't pimp his mobile phone number. Although in true Meri style, he probably would have sent calls from Moscow to voice mail.
Comments