Anti-Estonian sentiment

Anti-Estonian sentiment generally describes dislike or hate of the Estonian people or the Republic of Estonia. Its opposite is Estophilia.

Christopher Walker and Robert Orttung allege that Kremlin-controlled sectors of the Russian media took advantage of anti-Estonian sentiment during Estonia's 2007 relocation of the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet-era monument to Russia's victory over Germany in the Second World War, originally called "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn". At various times following Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union Russian national television has effectively shaped anti-Estonian sentiment with the state controlled media redoubling their anti-Estonian campaign after specific events that displease Moscow.

According to Lilia Shevtsova, Senior Associate at the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program Chair of the Carnegie Moscow Center, anti-Estonian sentiment was intentionally escalated by Kremlin in its "search for enemies", however she also notes that even Russian democrats took Estonia's removal of the statue immediately before one of the most respected and cherished dates in the Russian calendar, to be an affront to the Russian national honour.

The Russian government used its state controlled media to propagate anti-Estonian sentiment in order to encourage ethnic Russian outrage, leading to coordinated waves of cyber attacks against Estonian internet infrastructure. The President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves stated at the time: "We are witnesses to the information war against Estonia which already reminds of an ideological aggression".

An anti-Estonian pejorative neologism, eSStonia, appeared in the Russian media, on Runet, and at the street protests in the midst of the Bronze Soldier controversy in 2007. The term, a portmanteau of Estonia and SS, is intended to portray Estonia as a neo-Nazi state.

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