Shortly afterwards, Kallas stepped in to quell the tsunami of gullibility, replying to Garton Ash, “This was somebody’s April fools joke. Not true.”
Last month, Kallas jokingly denied that she ate “Russians for breakfast,” after one anonymous European Union official had attributed unbending anti-Moscow positions to her.
“The fact that this April fools joke generated so much attention and support shows the strong voice of Kaja Kallas on the European strategic scene,” said former top NATO official Camille Grand on X.
Silver Tambur, a publisher at Estonian World, told POLITICO the article’s aim was to increase public attention for Kallas’ NATO bid. “That was part of what we wanted to do, and I am happy about the attention the story got,” he said.
Speaking at the POLITICO Defense Summit in November, Kallas said she was interested in taking over the top job at NATO as the Cold War-era alliance continues to navigate Russia’s war in Ukraine, along with homing in on common strategies against China and other emerging threats.
The term of current NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who led the military alliance since 2014, will end in October this year.
The new head of NATO will be appointed this summer and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is in pole position to take over the job after receiving endorsement from Washington, London, Paris and Berlin.
