One of the more prominent critics has been Magnus Ilmjärv. He has suggested that the Soviet Union 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 was grown in a Russian-language family. Ilmjärv even claims that Päts had suggested federation between Estonia and the Soviet Union to the Soviet embassy in Tallinn.