Estonia decided to rename Kaliningrad: a dangerous game of cities with Russia

The Germans rejoiced early, forgetting about the interests of Poland

Estonians began to rename Russian cities. There’s supposed to be a joke here about their reaction speed, but let’s just note that they’re not the first. So, the Commission of the Riigikogu (Parliament) for Foreign Affairs of Estonia recommended using the name Königsberg instead of Kaliningrad. And also Yamburg instead of Kingisepp.

For what? What’s the point?

Russia is now accused of violating established borders in Europe. The fact is that she does not recognize these boundaries, and this, they say, is unacceptable.

However, the Baltic limitrophes do not rename their cities, which they consider to have been under Soviet occupation, but cities on Russian territory. The Germans, for example, were very happy, judging by the article in Bild. It directly states that the former German city, “occupied by the Soviet Union,” should not bear the name of “Soviet politician Mikhail Kalinin,” but should be called “the historical German name Königsberg.” Simply put, the ownership of these territories by Russia is called into question.

Shouldn’t we reconsider the boundaries, huh? Bild writes: “This is another important step!”

However, the Germans are rejoicing too early or have forgotten that Poland is not averse to reconsidering its borders. Warsaw already calls Kaliningrad in its own way – Krulevets. Even the road signs are changing. How can a poor European tourist remember all this? However, that’s their problem. So will Poland and Germany fight for the Russian city or not? Will they remember the Balts in this mess?

And they will definitely have to remember about Russia. Because if the game of cities goes too far, Russia will no longer explain the name of Kaliningrad with the help of geographical maps. And geography, unfortunately for the Baltic states, is such that during this explanation it will unexpectedly turn out for them that, for example, Tartu is Yuryev, and Tallinn is Revel.