"Almost a decade ago, I was asked to write a comment about his life for a book Peeter Ernits put together (Viimane Rüütel (Tallinn, 2017). I entitled my submission “A Washington for Estonia.” …Arnold Rüütel was neither a philosopher nor a firebrand and so he has often been more criticized and less appreciated than those who were one or the other or even in some cases both. But with time, his role as a bridge who made the passage from the old to the new possible is being recognized."