U.S. ambassador to Estonia resigns over Trump’s attacks on institutions
The U.S. ambassador to Estonia — a NATO ally on the edge of Russia — abruptly resigned Friday, telling friends that he cannot abide President Donald Trump’s apparent hostility toward institutions that have stabilized Europe since the end of the Cold War.
James Melville’s decision to abandon the embassy comes at a crucial moment for independent countries along Russia’s western border; amid the possibility of military conflicts and as Trump suggests he is rethinking America’s traditional support for its allies in Moscow’s shadow.
“The honorable course is to resign,” Melville wrote on Facebook. “Having served under six presidents and 11 secretaries of state, I never really thought it would reach that point for me.
“For the President to say the (European Union) was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”
Estonia is one of several formerly Soviet-controlled countries that has since joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; essentially allying with the United States and western Europe, whose militaries protect Estonia against Russian aggression.
Situated between Russia and the Baltic sea, tiny Estonia has been especially wary of its former occupier since 2007, when a massive cyber attack from Russian servers crippled Estonia’s government, banks, and news organizations, according to the BBC.
Since then, Russia has sent military forces into others neighbors — Georgia and Ukraine — raising fears that it could one day target the Baltic states.
Just before the presidential election in 2016, The Washington Post documented how NATO fighter jets routinely scrambled from an Estonian air base to meet Russian warplanes that buzzed the country’s airspace.