| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Estonia -- Lennart Meri dies ... why you should care ... |
| 2006-03-14 |
| EFL, and not on the Web yet (my girlfriend is close to the preparations to this first State funeral in the 2nd republic of Estonia (K. Päts got buried in Estonia after his trip to the gulag) ... EFL ... He has not endeared himself to everyone, however. Anatol Lieven recounts how in 1992, when Meri was serving as ambassador to Finland, he crashed a meeting between Baltic leaders and then U.S. President George Bush. "Addressing him as George, Meri informed [the American president] that his administration possessed neither a Russian nor a Baltic policy. In the words of one diplomat, 'before that Bush hardly remembered that the Balts existed. Now, thanks to Meri, he is furious with them.’" Meri is also said to have an unsettling effect on Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Head-to-head talks on troop withdrawals between the two leaders in Moscow in 1994 were reportedly so lively that by the end of the marathon discussions shattered glass littered the floor beneath their negotiating table. (Meri refused to confirm the reports."I was too busy looking into Yeltsin's eyes to notice what was under the table," he said.) RIP, Meri. |
| Posted by:Glomons Snairong5912 |