Estonian president slams Klaus for suggesting Russia more important than fellow EU members

The president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has slammed his Czech counterpart Václav Klaus for suggesting the EU should pay more attention to Russia’s interests than to those of its own members in the Baltics, the news agency AFP reported. Mr Ilves made the comments on Friday in reaction to an interview Mr Klaus gave to a Czech newspaper before an EU summit with Russia which he chaired, as part of the Czech presidency of the bloc. Mr Klaus, who has a reputation as being pro-Russian, told Lidové noviny he did not see Russia as a threat but as a big, strong and ambitious country, to which more attention should be paid to than the likes of Estonia and Lithuania. The Estonian foreign ministry said it had summoned the Czech ambassador over the comments.