✔ 89% of Estonians support NATO membership (Estonian World)
✔ U.S. Military Completes $11.2 Million Face-Lift in Tapa (ABCNews)
✔ Navalny Annnounces He Will Seek Russian Presidency (RFERL)
✔ Ronald Reagan would roll over in his grave, President Obama said of recent GOP praise of Russia (CNN)
- Foto:
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Friday
16. December
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- View from Estonia: Flaky Friends and a Neighbour from Hell
(Prospect Magazine - Uk)
"They rooted for Hillary Clinton, and expected her to win. If America saw her as lacking in warmth, in the Baltics she displayed a crowd-pleasing touch - thrilling the locals with her embrace of folk dance, and reportedly outlasting John McCain in a vodka-drinking contest on an official trip to Estonia.”
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"The hope was that Madam President would echo Barack Obama’s vow: that the defence of the Baltic capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius was “just as important” as that of London, Paris and Berlin. “You’ve lost your independence before,” Obama told a rapturous audience in Tallinn in 2014. “With Nato, you’ll never lose it again!” What a contrast with Trump, who suggested Nato was “obsolete” until its members paid more for their defence. He’s backpedalled somewhat, but his expressions of admiration for Vladimir Putin have left officials here aghast."
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- U.S. Politics: For Russia, more love
(Politico-Europe)
"Republican sympathies for Putin and his homeland are rising. … While some Republicans in Congress have slammed the Russian strongman and called for investigations into the Kremlin’s attempts to influence the election, the party’s voters are increasingly fond of Putin."
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"The dramatic shift in sentiment - for a party that once defined itself by its staunch opposition to the Soviet Union - comes as President-elect Donald Trump has steadfastly refused to criticize Putin and signaled a different tone with Russia policy.”
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“The Republican base, particularly the Trump part of the Republican base, is going to regard anyone and anything that helped their great leader to win as a positive force, or at least a less negative force.”
- Finland, the Baltic states, and security
(Diplomaatia via Estonian World)
"The Baltic states’ applications for NATO membership came as a surprise to Finland, but when accession was completed in 2004, opinions subsided. … Finland was happy with the development of its near neighborhood. The government’s security reports in 2004 and 2009 stated that the enlargement of the EU and NATO, as well as political and economic changes in Russia, had stabilized the situation in the region around Finland.”
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"It is also important to bear in mind that a crisis in the Baltic Sea region would inevitably affect Finland’s position and security one way or another. Isolation would not be possible, but history and geography would undoubtedly influence Finland’s choices in a Baltic Sea crisis. Finland must be prepared for being attacked itself."
✔ Logging lobby eating into Estonian forests
(Postimees | ERR)
"The past nearly ten years have been triumphant for the timber industry – donations to political parties and acquaintances in the Ministry of the Environment have helped render the forest act gradually more ax friendly. New relief is already in the pipeline."
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✔ Metsakaitsjad avaldasid keskkonnaministeeriumi ees meelt
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✔ Environmentalists protest against Estonia's state forestry policy
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✔ Keskkonnaministeerium varjab mittesäästlikku metsaraiet
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✔ Keskkonnaühendused ja teadlased pole rahul Eesti metsanduspoliitikaga
- Belarus: Trump in the White House and Russia’s Neighbors Back in the USSR?
(The Daily Beast - Anna Nemtsova)
“After Trump’s victory, President Putin was in a great mood, and even joked to kids at a recent event linked to the study of geography: “Russia’s borders don’t end anywhere,” he said, chortling. But in Belarus, they’re not laughing."
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15. December
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- Mida Venemaal Eestist arvatakse?
(Postimees)
"Kuna televisioon on Venemaal põhiline infokanal, võib neid arvamusi pidada Venemaa meedia mõjuväljas elava inimese tüüpiliseks mõtteviisiks ehk diskursuseks. Otsustasime need seisukohad, käsitlused ja mõtted välja tuua ning kõrvutada sellega, mida Eestis samade asjade kohta usutakse."
- Tapal avati USA sõdurite ehitatud taristu
(Postimees)
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- US Military Completes $11.2 Million Face-Lift in Tapa
(ABCNews | Washington Post)
"Updated amenities include new sniper and machine gun ranges, maintenance facilities and a train loading area. ... the base recently has hosted American military units for training exercises. Next year it will become the main base for 800 British infantry and 300 French troops."
—
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- U.S. Army Returns Tanks to Europe as NATO Eyes Assertive Russia
(NBC News)
- Gotland rejects Russian pipeline
(Radio Sweden | Deutsche Welle | RFERL)
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"The decision comes amid growing security concerns over Russia's influence in Europe."
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- Russian company eyeing LNG bunkering facility in Saaremaa
(The Baltic Course)
“… the center they are planning at Montu will comprise a floating LNG storage facility with a capacity of 5,000 cubic meters and a berth for the mooring of vessels bunkered from a 1,300 cubic meter tanker capable of supplying fuel both in harbors and at offshore facilities of Estonian and Latvian ports."
- 'RT America': The One News Outlet For Which Trump Retains An Unexpected Affinity
(NPR)
[RT is the Kremlin’s propaganda channel.]
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14. December
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- Baltic states urge strong U.S. defense commitment to region
(Reuters)
"The defense ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia renewed their call on Wednesday for a strong U.S. engagement in the Baltic region amid concerns over the attitude of the incoming Trump administration. … In their statement, the three defense ministers said they wanted a long-term allied air and maritime presence in the Baltic Sea region, including the continuation of the enhanced NATO air-policing mission."
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- U.S. decides to accelerate troop deployment to Poland, Baltics, and Romania
(Latvian Broadcasting | ERR)
"Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges said the troops would arrive in the German port of Bremerhaven on Jan. 6, and immediately be deployed to Poland, the Baltic states, and Romania. Their transfer would be timed and treated as a test of how fast the force could move from port to field."
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- Humor: "Putin Agrees to Receive Intelligence Briefings in Trump's Place"
(The New Yorker)
“… a further example of international coöperation …"
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13. December
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- Latvia: Russian military jets fly by to Kaliningrad
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"NATO's Baltic Air Police jets identified two Sukhoi Su-27 jets, which are fairly frequent vsitors, and one more advanced Su-30 …"
- Report: Putin Personally Involved in U.S. Election Hack
(NBC News)
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- The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.
(New York Times)
"A 2007 cyberattack on Estonia, a former Soviet republic that had joined NATO, sent a message that Russia could paralyze the country without invading it. The next year cyberattacks were used during Russia’s war with Georgia.
But American officials did not imagine that the Russians would dare try those techniques inside the United States."
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- Luureallikad: USA valimiste mõjutamist juhtis Putin isiklikult
(ERR)
"Venemaa president Vladimir Putin juhtis isiklikult kampaaniat, mille eesmärk oli mõjutada USA presidendivalimisi, teatas NBC News, tuginedes mitme kõrge luureametniku ütlustele."
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12. December
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- Why Trump Makes This Small Country So Nervous
(Politico)
"Centuries of invasions by czars, Bolsheviks, Nazis and Soviets have made Estonians a stoic lot. Even as American officials in Washington fret about Russian intentions, Estonians are well-accustomed to living with the specter of the Russian threat and the uncertainty it can bring. Memories of the Soviet occupation and a 2007 cyberattack on Estonia by Russia - not to mention Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine - remain fresh here.”
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“When several years ago, President [George W.] Bush looked into the eyes of [Vladimir] Putin and saw something nice there or whatever, we didn’t. When Hillary Clinton as secretary of state pushed this reset button, we didn’t see any chance of that reset working,” Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said. “We here in Estonia are rather skeptical that this could end in a success. … It would be good to have a more sober, more realistic approach from the beginning.”
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- Survey: 89% of Estonians support the country’s NATO membership
(Estonian World)
- Media: Raadio Vaba Euroopa läheb Trumpi käpa alla
(Postimees)
[Trump could get direct control of RFERL, VOA.]
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- Media: A big change to U.S. broadcasting is coming - it’s one Putin might admire
(Washington Post)
"An amendment quietly inserted into the annual National Defense Authorization Act by Republican House leaders would abolish the broadcasting board and place VOA, RFE/RL and other international news and information operations under the direct control of a chief executive appointed by the president.”
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“Trust No One"
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- Proposed Mental Health Database Has Russian Psychiatrists Worried
(The Moscow Times)
"When it was founded in August, “National Pharmaceutical Registry, Ltd.” seemed innocuous enough. The company planned to create a unified registry of pharmaceutical products purchased, sold, and imported in Russia. Their database would assist with state procurement of medications. … Earlier this month, the company outlined its plan to create a unified registry of all Russians suffering from psychiatric illnesses. ... psychiatrists are already raising the alarm over confidentiality, security and what the database will be used for."
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- Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
(World Library org)
"There was systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, based on the interpretation of political opposition or dissent as a psychiatric problem. … If a person was mentally ill, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital until his dying day. If he was not quite mentally healthy but not quite ill, with his character traits, he was sent to a prison camp or shot. When some allusions to the so-called socialist legality appeared, it was decided these people must be tried. But soon it became realized that bringing the people who gave anti-Soviet speeches to trial made matters worse, they began not to be admitted to the court by being attributed with psychiatric diagnoses and declared insane."
—
- The World of Soviet Psychiatry
(New York Times - January 1983)
“… I met Soviet emigres who were psychiatrists themselves - some of them dissidents escaping political trouble but most of them people who had simply wanted to leave. Among the latter, several had worked as scientists and clinicians at the heart of Soviet psychiatry, either in Snezhnevsky's institute or in other important research centers."
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"Soon enough, it became apparent that the experience of Soviet psychiatry had a lot to teach - not only about Soviet political repression but about the ways in which people who have spent their lives in the Soviet environment think, talk and perceive each other. And, too, it had a lot to teach about the vulnerabilities of psychiatry to misuse wherever it is practiced. Some of the characteristics of Soviet psychiatry that had resulted in the misdiagnoses of dissidents were distortions of standard psychiatric logic, theory and practice. In short, the story of Soviet psychiatry was a case study in what could go wrong in a profession and in a society."
- Baker’s Dozen of Neglected Russian Stories
(Paul Goble)
- What It Really Means to Be a ‘Friend of Putin’
(Politico)
"The lesson of Putin’s 16-year tenure is a lesson that all businesspeople, foreign and domestic, have learned: To do business in Russia, you have to be on good, personal terms with Putin (and Putin's former KGB buddy), Igor Sechin. And you have to understand that those two gatekeepers to Russia’s riches are fickle and sadistic, and, as former KGB operatives, know little of real friendship. To do business in Russia—both for Exxon Mobil and for Tillerson’s own massive retirement fund, whose fortunes would rise significantly if a Trump White House lifted sanctions—you have to dance to Putin’s tune, and take whatever favors and humiliations he sends your way.”
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"Putin may act a friend and pin state medals on your breast, but he is, ultimately, a cynic. And to play ball with him, you have to be a cynic, too. Forget your honor, your rule of law, your independent judiciary, your human rights, your international law, and focus on the gold coins he throws to your feet. And forget looking dignified as you gather them up."
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- GOP Leader Throws Cold Water on Trump's Warm Russian Relationships
(WNYC)
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- What does Putin gain from a Trump presidency?
(CNN)
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- Basis of Putin’s Optimism: Big US Firms Were Quite Ready to Overlook Even Stalin’s Crimes
(Paul Goble)
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- What We Know About Rex Tillerson, Trump's Pick For Secretary Of State
(NPR)
"ExxonMobil is one of the few American oil companies that has managed to stay in Russia through all kinds of political weather."
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- For Republican Russia Hawks, a Dilemma Named Rex Tillerson
(New York Times)
"Reagan helped to frame the template for an American foreign policy that promulgated democracy around the world and curbed what has often been called Russian adventurism.
Now Republicans will have to reconcile that party catechism with their vote on Mr. Trump’s selection as secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, who is the chief executive of Exxon Mobil and a longtime friend of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia."
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- Trump wasn’t happy with his State Department finalists. Then he heard a new name.
(Washington Post)
“… by happenstance, Trump welcomed into his office a man who has served presidents of both parties, Robert M. Gates. Trump asked his guest, a former CIA director and former defense secretary, what he thought of the four candidates. After Gates ran through his thoughts, it seemed that Trump was “looking for a way out,” a person familiar with the session said. Trump asked whether there was someone else to consider. “I recommend Rex,” Gates told Trump, referring to Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of ExxonMobil. Gates said in an interview that he had not gone to the meeting intending to recommend Tillerson, and he did not recommend anyone else. Separately, on the previous day, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had proposed Tillerson to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Rice and Gates, who run a consulting firm that counts ExxonMobil as a client, had jointly concluded that Tillerson might give Trump a fresh alternative."
- The Two Putins, Imaginary and Real
(Window on Eurasia)
"Many have asked “who is Mr. Putin?” but the answer is complicated by the fact that there are at least two Putins, the one many people imagine him to be and the one he really is, and that the longer he remains in power, the greater the gap between the two is becoming, according to Aleksey Shaburov."
- Aleksei Navalny Annnounces He Will Seek Russian Presidency
(RFERL)
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- Navalnõi teatas Vene presidendiks kandideerimisest
(ERR)
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- Alexei Navalny's presidential platform
(Meduza)
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- Can Navalny Trump Putin?
(RFERL)
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- Opinion: Navalny is useful for Putin
(Deutsche Welle)
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