One could argue that with the closure of the OSCE mission in Tallinn at the end of 2001 was the end of the initial problems between the Russo-phone minority and the Estonians. The question is whether the problems are solved or was it more a question of sending the signal to the surrounding world that Estonia is master in its own house. Thus, the purpose of this article is to analyse whether, and if so, to which extent the Russo-phone minority1 in Estonia can be seen as a structural security threat to the consolidation of Estonia as a strong democratic state. In other words my intention is to reach a clearer understanding of the scope of the problematic fact that about 20% of the population does not have Estonian citizenship, and to get an idea of the consequences and the dimensions of this problem. I will investigate the problem by analysing whether legal, socio-economic and identity cleavages in the Estonian society correspond with the ethnic cleavage between the Estonians and the Russo-phone minority. If the cleavages correspond and overlap the ethnic, linguistic cleavage then Estonia is faced with a serious structural se- curity threat that can obstruct the con- solidation of Estonia as a strong demo- cratic state