NARVA, Estonia — At a town hall in an Estonian city on the border with Russia last month, the challenge of fighting Russian disinformation was on full display.

Yana Toom, an Estonian member of the European Parliament, joined journalist Anton Aleksejev and academic Aleksandr Astrov at Narva College to talk about the war in Ukraine. Toom, whose Centre Party relies on the Estonian Russian-speaking community's support, had recently made a public pivot — to condemn Russia's war in Ukraine. She called the move a potential "political suicide" in an interview with NPR.

But it was the audience, made up of residents of Narva, a city whose population is over 95 percent Russian-speaking, that made the liveliest contributions — for and against the West's approach to the war.

A group of older women in the back of the audience would regularly interject every time a comment was made supporting Ukraine or condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin. They'd throw out insults about Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, a former actor, or suggest that if the U.S. ordered Estonia to attack Russia, their country would be forced into war. Meanwhile, other audience members, including a few younger women, became emotional when asking whether it was possible to convince their friends and family members to think of the massacres in cities like Bucha and Mariupol, and change their minds about supporting the Russian regime.

Estonia is one of several countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union where culturally Russian people live and work, particularly in the border regions. While many have lived in Estonia their entire lives, the influence of Russian TV, Russian politics and Russian culture remains strong.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11...

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