The proposal was dropped, but Kallas rose in stature. History proved her right as Russia rolled in tanks in an attempt to take Kyiv in early 2022, and she was seen as the right woman at the right time to be plucked out of domestic politics and placed into the EU’s top echelon. Her reputation as a Russia hawk denied her a chance to lead the NATO military alliance, but she was handed a choice alternative: EU’s high representative for foreign affairs.

In 2021, when Russia started amassing troops along its border with Ukraine, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed that the European Union invite Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit. Kaja Kallas—then the prime minister of Estonia, a country of 1.3 million—slammed the idea. Rather than hope that the Russian president’s behavior would change, she argued, Europe should recognize that he had been acting entirely consistently for years, since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

In 2021, when Russia started amassing troops along its border with Ukraine, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed that the European Union invite Russian President Vladimir Putin for a summit. Kaja Kallas—then the prime minister of Estonia, a country of 1.3 million—slammed the idea. Rather than hope that the Russian president’s behavior would change, she argued, Europe should recognize that he had been acting entirely consistently for years, since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The proposal was dropped, but Kallas rose in stature. History proved her right as Russia rolled in tanks in an attempt to take Kyiv in early 2022, and she was seen as the right woman at the right time to be plucked out of domestic politics and placed into the EU’s top e