Though this has more to do with the Russian Federation than with Estonia (with which it nominally has nothing in common), the subject matter is what Estonia and Latvia and other East European states are all about or rather about differences of civic and tribal identities.
Here is the "inspirational" piece:
Re: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/08/15/russia-the-ugly-side-of-olympic-nationalism/
Excerpt -
This has prompted an online poll , comparing an ethnic Armenian competing for Russia and an ethic Russian competing for Kazakhstan. The poll asks a simple question: "What do you view as a victory? The gold medal of Russian Federation citizen Arsen Galstyan? Or the gold medal of ethnic Russian Aleksandr Vinokurov?" Over eighteen thousand people have voted so far, and the results are 80% in Vinokurov's favor. Coincidentally, ethnic Russians make up around 80% of Russia's population.
I think this article is remarkable, the poll results are revealing but they could be different if the ethnic Armenian had a Russian name because a lot of this is superficial. Second important consideration: through activities of the Putinist state and because of the Soviet "nationalities" policies before that, when and where all nationalities and ethnicities were in the past and are now entitled to their autonomy in one form or the other and (Great) Russians are deliberately denied it though forced to a system that was by no means a melting pot but an ethnic zoo, we are now facing the rise unstoppable rise of ethnic nationalism of the Latvian or Croatian fashion (this is an incredibly dark force - just look at the size of Russia's - even Poland is not strictly an ethnic state, neither is Germany though it is somewhat close to the model, of course France and Great Britain are not ethnocracies and neither are India, Argentina or the USA), this popular ethnic nationalist movement, born out of Soviet and post-Soviet regimes own criminal policies, perhaps might transform Russia into the world's largest ethnostate of the Central and East European model. The Estonisation or Lettization of Russia would mean a sad end for the great Russian State's historic journey but admittedly even that outcome would be preferable to the current status quo with a kleptocratic semi-Bolshevist Nomenklatura-capitalist centralized Muscovite steppe khanate that is despised from inside and outside of the country's borders.
*****
and Mike Averko's commentary / conclusions from reading that piece differ from mine
"
Put mildly, there's reason to doubt how well the above excerpted conforms with actual reality - which isn't to say that intolerance doesn't exist in Russia.
For openers, one might ask why Vinokurov didn't (apparently) make an effort to represent Russia? The Kazakh born Russian ice hockey goalie Yevgeny Nabokov was able to successfully petition and compete for Russia.
One senses that most patriotically inclined sports fans the world over root for their country, with ethnicity being of little importance. The historical recollections I've come across indicate that in an era of Jim Crow laws, 1930s white America at large enthusiastically rooted for Joe Louis against Max Schmeling and Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 Olympics.
Would most ethnic Russians root for Moscow born ethnic Russian Nastia Lukhin of the US against ethnic Tatar Alija Mustafina of Russia, in a hypothetical Olympic gymnastics gold medal showdown?
"
Here is the "inspirational" piece:
Re: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/08/15/russia-the-ugly-side-of-olympic-nationalism/
Excerpt -
This has prompted an online poll , comparing an ethnic Armenian competing for Russia and an ethic Russian competing for Kazakhstan. The poll asks a simple question: "What do you view as a victory? The gold medal of Russian Federation citizen Arsen Galstyan? Or the gold medal of ethnic Russian Aleksandr Vinokurov?" Over eighteen thousand people have voted so far, and the results are 80% in Vinokurov's favor. Coincidentally, ethnic Russians make up around 80% of Russia's population.
I think this article is remarkable, the poll results are revealing but they could be different if the ethnic Armenian had a Russian name because a lot of this is superficial. Second important consideration: through activities of the Putinist state and because of the Soviet "nationalities" policies before that, when and where all nationalities and ethnicities were in the past and are now entitled to their autonomy in one form or the other and (Great) Russians are deliberately denied it though forced to a system that was by no means a melting pot but an ethnic zoo, we are now facing the rise unstoppable rise of ethnic nationalism of the Latvian or Croatian fashion (this is an incredibly dark force - just look at the size of Russia's - even Poland is not strictly an ethnic state, neither is Germany though it is somewhat close to the model, of course France and Great Britain are not ethnocracies and neither are India, Argentina or the USA), this popular ethnic nationalist movement, born out of Soviet and post-Soviet regimes own criminal policies, perhaps might transform Russia into the world's largest ethnostate of the Central and East European model. The Estonisation or Lettization of Russia would mean a sad end for the great Russian State's historic journey but admittedly even that outcome would be preferable to the current status quo with a kleptocratic semi-Bolshevist Nomenklatura-capitalist centralized Muscovite steppe khanate that is despised from inside and outside of the country's borders.
*****
and Mike Averko's commentary / conclusions from reading that piece differ from mine
"
Put mildly, there's reason to doubt how well the above excerpted conforms with actual reality - which isn't to say that intolerance doesn't exist in Russia.
For openers, one might ask why Vinokurov didn't (apparently) make an effort to represent Russia? The Kazakh born Russian ice hockey goalie Yevgeny Nabokov was able to successfully petition and compete for Russia.
One senses that most patriotically inclined sports fans the world over root for their country, with ethnicity being of little importance. The historical recollections I've come across indicate that in an era of Jim Crow laws, 1930s white America at large enthusiastically rooted for Joe Louis against Max Schmeling and Jesse Owens' performance at the 1936 Olympics.
Would most ethnic Russians root for Moscow born ethnic Russian Nastia Lukhin of the US against ethnic Tatar Alija Mustafina of Russia, in a hypothetical Olympic gymnastics gold medal showdown?
"
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