Kaja Kallas, recently appointed as the EU’s top diplomat, will deal with war in the Middle East, threats to economic security from China, and the struggle to win over a skeptical Global South that Moscow and Beijing are both trying to woo. But the most critical task she will be entrusted with is the formation of the EU’s response to the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The politician urged the EU to take the Russian threat seriously long before the invasion of Ukraine. In particular, in 2021, when Angela Merkel still argued that Russia could be drawn into the rules-based world order through economic ties such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and called for an EU summit with Putin. Kallas, as the Prime Minister of Estonia, opposed the proposal and the idea was rejected, much to Merkel’s annoyance.
The Estonian politician earned international authority, which grew dramatically after the start of the war in Ukraine. Kallas became the first European leader declared wanted by the Kremlin.