The Russian community has needed a fresh charismatic leader behind whom they could rally. For a few decades it was Savisaar, in spite of Savisaar’s patronizing exploitation of them. He needed them as a means to power. Prominent Russian-speaking Centre party stalwarts were reluctant to challenge his leadership.
Kõlvart is of a different ilk. To Russians he’s a ‘home boy’, ‘one of us’. His home tongue is Russian, not Russian as a second language. He is attractively macho but without swagger, successful but without bluster, intelligent but not grandiose.
However, few knew before the election that he wasn’t genetically Russian. His father Ülo is Estonia, mother Liidia Korean and he was born in Kazahkstan. Observers of Estonian politics have him identified as Russian. Kõlvart himself has said that he assumed the Russian identity when becoming involved with politics. He insists however that Russians don’t see him as Russian. He’s perceived as ‘one of us’, but not necessarily Russian. Within the world of international taek won do martial arts, which he coaches, he is known as Estonian, Kõlvart says.
Those who have looked at Kõlvart’s past say that he was known as ‘Miša’ by Tallinn’s criminal underworld. An article in a 2011 issue of ‘Reporter’ states that he was incarcerated for one month in 1999 as a student. A friend of Kõlvart’s died in a Mercedes-Benz explosion in Lasnamäe Eesti Ekspress in 2011 stated. Even though a large sum of money, gas pistol, police uniforms etc. were discovered in Kõlvart’s apartment, he wasn’t charged. The explosion was said to have been caused by his friend.
Politically more significant was Kõlvart’s participation at a youth camp at Seliger, Russia where Russian enemies were exhibited. Their heads, festooned with Swastika, were impaled upon sharpened stakes. Amongst the enemies were Andrus Ansip, Tunne Kelam, Mart Laar.
It’s known that Kõlvart has visited North Korea at least in 2009, 2016 and recently in September 2017 as coach of a taek won do team. The most prominent feature of the competition was the overpowering idolization of Korea’s brutal dictator Kim Jong-il. The mere presence of international competitors was taken as paying homage to him. While most athletic competitors insist that sports is and should be free of politics, it’s evident that the North Korean leadership consider visits by foreigners for any purpose as being an conscious endorsement of the legitimacy of their leadership.
Öhtuleht has recently compiled some similarities between Kõlvart and Vladimir Putin: Both are athletic and expert in martial arts; neither one is especially talkative; both keep their personal lives private; both have higher education in law; both have attracted record numbers of voters; both have been recognized by the Orthodox church through various honours; both have served as vice-mayors of cities, Putin in St. Petersburg, Kõlvart in Tallinn. While these parallels are interesting, one cannot conclude that Kõlvart might have the same autocratic tendencies as Putin.
Kõlvart has been generally labeled as a Moscow-friendly Centre Party leading politician. This may be his strategy in holding the loyalty of the sizable Russian-speaking Centre Party voter group, people who for the most part receive their news and opinions through Kremlin-controlled TV. It is considered inevitable, that while Savisaar was seen as a symbol of the party’s unity, Kõlvart’s election heroics will not foster the Centre’s cohesiveness. Undoubtedly in maintaining his authority as the official leader of the Centre Party, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas will have to accommodate the political popularity of Kõlvart whose self-image is Russian.
Laas Leivat, Toronto
