For Estonia when it comes to Nord Stream, the gas pipeline to link Russia and the European Union via the Baltic Sea, it's a choice between emotion and the country's international image.

The government of the small Baltic nation, which joined the EU in 2004, is scheduled to decide by September 30 whether to grant the Russian-German project permission to research the Baltic seabed in Estonian territorial waters for construction of the pipeline between Russia and Germany.

"The government will be in a bit of a pickle," Andres Kasekamp told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday. "They'll postpone the decision as long as they can."

Nord Stream requested seabed surveys in the Estonian economic zone after Finnish authorities asked for the original route to be moved further south.

According to Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip on Tuesday Estonia's answer to Nord Stream will be based on rational arguments, not emotion.

It would be emotionally satisfying for Estonia to say nyet to Russia, Kasekamp said. Relations between the two countries soured after the Estonian government relocated a Soviet-era World War II monument in April.

Domestically, the very idea of the 1200-kilometer Russian pipeline going through Estonian economic zone has been controversial. Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to construct the pipeline without consulting with other nations that would be impacted by the project, some say.

The agreement between the two leaders was likened to the pact between Germany and USSR in 1939, which scarred Estonia and the other two Baltic nations for decades, and cost them their independence to Soviet Russia in 1940.

Internationally, Estonia however is liable to provide a reason for Russia to paint the country as obstructionist and inconsiderate of her EU partners.

"The gas pipe construction is expected not only by the Germans and the French, but also our good partners the Danes and the British. Why give Russia another reason to accuse us of nonconstructive behavior and paranoia," Kasekamp said in an opinion piece published Monday in Estonia's Postimees (The Courier) newspaper.

Copyright 2007 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

Related Project
Nord Stream Pipeline
Facility Type: Pipeline Owner: Nord Stream AG
Scope: New Construction Location: Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany Russian Federation