a Soviet agent, a collaborator, took the Soviet invasion as inevitable or was just ill-minded and failed to deal with the situation. One of the more prominent modern critics of Päts, Magnus Ilmjärv, has suggested that Soviet Russia sought since the 1920s to literally buy off some of the top-level Estonian politicians. He suggests that the Soviets saw Päts and his conservative Farmers' Assemblies party to be the most suitable. The easiest way to influence Päts and his party is said to have been the Estonian-Russian Chamber of Commerce. Päts was secretly very Russian-minded, as he grew up in a Russian-speaking home. Ilmjärv even claims that Päts had suggested federation between Estonia and the Soviet Union to the Soviet embassy in Tallinn. Ilmjärv claims that Päts was against any "Baltic Union" that was propagated by the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Kaarel Robert Pusta. Päts is even documented to have said to the Soviet ambassador that he was against politicians like Pusta and he desired to create a new constitution that would reduce the power of the Riigikogu. Through Päts, the Soviet Union is said to have gotten Pusta out of government cabinet and with him, also end the ideas of a united Baltic state. It is also claimed that Päts purposefully gave up valuable information to the Soviets, when he negotiated the Estonian-Russian commerce treaty for Estonia. Päts also supported giving concession rights of the Narva River hydroelectric power plant to the German enterprise Siemens-Schuckert Werke that already had many projects in Russia and was influenced by it. An Estonian oil syndicate became a joint Estonian-Soviet enterprise in 1928 and Päts was hired by it as a legal consultant in 1930. His annual salary was $4,000, which was twice as much as the State Elder earned and more than eight times as much as Päts earned as a member of parliament. The purpose of the joint enterprise for the Soviets was not supposed to be business-related, but only to attract Päts. This official salary by the Soviet Union has thus been seen as the salary for his long-term cooperation with the Soviets. After Päts's coup d'état, the Soviet Union increased economic cooperation with Estonian enterprises. Other theories maintain that Päts trusted the Soviet officials and had befriended some of the Soviet leaders. It is also possible, that the NKVD controlled Päts's health or the information that reached him. Finnish