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06 January, 2017



✔ Baltic states are NOT 'ex-Soviet’ republics - Baltic Times

✔ Narva Prospers While Russia’s Ivangorod Decays  - Paul Goble

✔ Aastalõpu Intervjuu: President Kersti Kaljulaid  - ERR 

✔ - US Special Forces deployed in Baltic states - New York Times

- Foto:




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Friday 6. Jan. 2017
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- Baltic states are NOT 'ex-Soviet' republics
(The Baltic Times | Latvian Broadcasting)
"Ambassadors of the three Baltic states have asked the German media to stop referring to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to as former Soviet republics. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said the address had been inspired by the Soviet Legacy column on the German news portal ZEIT ONLINE. According to the ministry, the portal responded to the remark, pledging to stop using the concept that is inaccurate in the sense of international law."
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- Osa USA sõjatehnikast on jõudnud Saksamaale
(ERR)
"Esialgu oli plaanis, et sõjaväelased saabuvad jaanuari lõpus, kuid USA ametist lahkuv president Barack Obama kiirendas protsessi, et 20. jaanuaril ametisse astuv Donald Trump seda peatada ei saaks."



- Rakverre tuleb Arvo Pärdi nimeline kontserdimaja
(Postimees)
"Virumaa Muuseumid näituste ala ning Rakvere Pauluse kiriku hoone renoveeritakse multifunktsionaalseks Arvo Pärdi nimeliseks kontserdimajaks ja kultuurikeskuseks."



- Intervjuu: Garri Kasparov
(Postimees)



- Finland's Brain Drain: Research Groups Now Moving Abroad
(Yle)
"Cuts to universities and state-funded research centres are contributing to growing brain drain from Finland and increasing unemployment among the highly educated …"



- Why Ukraine celebrates Christmas on 7. January
(Euromaidan Press)



- Moscow Lacks a Plan to Ensure Kaliningrad Oblast’s Security
(Window on Eurasia)
"The Regnum news agency has often taken a harder line on issues on the Baltic region than have Moscow and its representatives on the scene, but this editorial is unusual in its tone and direct criticism of the powers that be locally and at the center.  That suggests that far more than the editors of one Russian news portal are worried about what is happening in Kaliningrad."




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Thursday 5. Jan. 2017

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ReviewEstonian national museum - 
touching and revealing
(The Guardian)
“The Estonian National Museum is not a usual sort of institution. Its past is wrapped up with that of the country itself. Now it somehow has to represent the complex and precarious history of Estonia, in a fraught present, with a combination of pride and sensitivity."



Unease in the Baltics as US allies watch Trump praise Putin
(PRI)



Leo Kunnas kirjutas raamatu tulevikusõjast Venemaaga
(Postimees)
"26. september 2023. Kell 08.51 lõpevad õppused «Zapad» ja algab sõda, milleks Venemaa on järjekindlalt ning hoolikalt valmistunud ligi poolteist aastakümmet. Nii algab kolonelleitnant Leo Kunnase värskeim teos «Sõda 2023. Taavet ja Koljat», mis jõudis raamatupoodidesse vahetult enne jõuluaega."
--
(Rahva Raamatupood)



Two New Estonian Novels Consider Two Very Different Outcomes of a War with Russia
(Paul Goble)
"The two novels, “David” and “Goliath,” are both devoted to what (Leo) Kunnas describes as “an upcoming war” in 2023 between Russia and the West, with the former postulating a victory by the West and the latter a defeat."



OpinionHow Estonia can save Western civilization
(The Hill)



Russian President confirms summer 2017 visit to Finland
(Yle)
“… to celebrate Finland’s 100-year anniversary of independence."





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Wednesday 4. Jan. 2017
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- US Special Forces deployed in Baltic states
(The Baltic Times)
- U.S. Lending Support to Baltic States Fearing Russia
(New York Times)
"The deployment of about a dozen American Special Operations forces to each of the Baltic States is a piece of the larger allied military strategy to deter any future Russian aggression. Embedded with their Baltic counterparts, the American commandos augment intelligence-gathering and other assessments by the Central Intelligence Agency and American diplomats on the threat posed by Russian activities.
“Do the Russians know we’re there?” General Thomas said. “Yes.”
--
- Kas USA eriväelased on Eestis? Jah, ilmselt on nad siin üsna tihti 
(Delfi)



- Russia Wants a Reset With NATO
(Foreign Policy | Moscow Times)
“I think a statement like this is strategically timed just weeks before Trump takes office,” said Rachel Rizzo, a NATO expert at the Center for New American Security. “Russia wants to make it sound like they’re ready to rebuild normal relations with NATO, they’ve just been waiting for the West to meet them halfway.”
“We need to build normal relations with NATO and renew what we had before,” Andrei Kelin, the Foreign Ministry’s head of the Department of European Cooperation, told Interfax. Many countries are NATO members because it is economically and politically profitable, allowing them to save money that would otherwise be spent on maintaining a full army, Kelin said. Such logic is particularly important for smaller countries, he added."
--
"… it is impossible to convince member states that they should leave NATO,” Kelin concluded, because their membership is based upon “purely rational reasons.”



- NATO: Russian Aircraft Intercepted 110 Times Above Baltic in 2016
(Newsweek)



- Like the sound of 10-gigabit internet everywhere? Then move to Estonia
(ZDNET)





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Tuesday 3. Jan. 2017
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A Tale of Two Cities: Estonia’s Narva Prospering While Russia’s Ivangorod Decays
(Paul Goble)
“… ethnic Russians in Narva, a city in a NATO country, are doing far better than the ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation currently ruled by Putin … just across the Narva River in Ivangorod, Russia, the situation is very different. Incomes are stagnating or falling for its 10,000 residents. The city has fewer resources than before to provide social services because of cutbacks in Moscow’s transfer payments. And the prospects for the future are anything but bright."
--
  "Russians clearly recognize this: There is currently a two-kilometer line of cars leaving Russia and seeking entry into Estonia for the holidays; there is no such line of cars leaving Estonia and seeking entry into Russia."



- John McCain & Co’s Magical Mystery Tour of Russia’s Front Line
(The Daily Beast)
"John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Amy Klobuchar traveled from the Baltic to the Black Sea confronting Putin—and Trump."
- McCain Says US Troops Should Stay Permanently In Estonia
(Washington Post | Daily Caller)
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- NATO’s Jittery Baltic Members Move to Beef Up Own Defense
(Wall Street Journal - subscription)



To counter fake news, Germany should look to Eastern Europe
(CEPA)
"Fake news is stale news in the frontline states. Even back in the early 1990s, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians were used to alarmist nonsense appearing on Russian television."






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Monday 2. Jan. 2017
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- US senators praise Ukrainian marines, slam Putin
(Politico-Europe)



- Norway, an Exemplar of NATO Burden-Sharing
(Foreign Affairs)



- Warning of 'collapse' of buildings in Siberia's permafrost cities in next 35 years
(Siberian Times | Window on Eurasia)





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Sunday 1. Jan. 2017
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Estonia A Global Human Rights Leader With Magnitsky Law
(World Affairs Journal | UpNorth)
“… at a conference held on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid signed a law—unanimously passed by the country’s parliament—providing for the denial of visas “if there is information or good reason to believe that the alien has participated in or contributed to the violation of human rights in a foreign state, which has resulted in the death, serious physical harm or unfounded conviction of a person for a crime for political motives, or some other serious consequences.”
“Estonia (is) the first country in Europe to adopt such provisions.
(President Kaljulaid Press Release)
"In a unprecedented vote, 90-0 unanimously in favour of the Magnitsky Amendment, Estonia became the first nation in the world to adopt this global human rights tool that creates real consequences for repressive government agents."



✔ Aastalõpu Intervjuu: President Kaljulaid
(ERR)
✔ End-of-year Interview: President Kaljulaid
(ERR)
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- Kersti Kaljulaid uusaastatervituses
(Postimees)
- President Kersti Kaljulaid’s New Year Address
(Postimees)










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- Russia | Putin-
“Trust No One"
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- Russia begins military drawdown in Syria
(Deutsche Welle | BBC)
- Venemaa alustas vägede väljatoomist Süüriast
(ERR)
"Beleaguered Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov … begins its transition on Friday and is headed toward the Russian port of Severomorsk, a town in the Murmansk region where Russia's Northern Fleet is headquartered.”
(Moscow Times)



- Putin and the Populists
(The Atlantic)
"The roots of Russia's political appeal in Europe and the United States."



- Digging Up My Grandfather’s Killers: A Journey Through the Stalinist Archives
(Carnegie Moscow Center)
"I was able to read the secret police files of my grandfather, who died in the Russian gulag in 1946, and then cross-reference the names of the men who persecuted him in the new database published by Memorial. Russia’s grandsons need to confront the truth about what their grandfathers did—but the Russian state would prefer its people to live with historical amnesia."



- Putin’s real long game
(Politico-Europe)

"A renewed approach to dealing with Putin’s Russia should begin by addressing the tactics of Russia’s new warfare from the perspective of strength."
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"We have to accept we’re in a war and that we have a lot to lose."



- Putin’s Revenge
(Politico Magazine)
"Humiliated by the 1990s, Russia’sstrongman is determined to win ColdWar 2.0. He may be succeeding."



- Russia Resurgent
(Slate)
"Against all expectation, relations with Russia have dominated the Obama administration’s foreign policy, right up through last week, when the president issued sweeping sanctions, in retaliation for Russia’s election meddling, that belied the blithe tone of his previous remarks. Relations with the renascent superpower are likely to dominate the next president’s term as well—in ways we’re only beginning to fathom."



- A Trump-Putin Deal on Crimea Could Trigger a Much Bigger War
(Window on Eurasia)
 "That would be a tragedy for Ukraine ... but a far greater tragedy would likely emerge from how Putin would read such a deal, as an indication that the West is not ready to stand up to him and that he can engage in more aggression with impunity."



- Is Putin’s Master Plan Only Beginning?
(Vanity Fair)
"With three consequential European elections occurring in 2017, the former K.G.B. officer has more potential to undermine free societies than he could have ever fathomed during his Cold War days."



- Putin won 2016, but Russia has its limits as a superpower
(The Washington Post)



- Putin Touts 'New Integraton' Of Former Soviet States On Economy, Defense
(RFERL)
"The presidents of Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan were in St. Petersburg for the meetings, which included informal summits of the Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization."



- The GRU: Putin’s No-Longer-So-Secret Weapon
(The Daily Beast)



- Russia Fell Apart When Its Leaders Overrated Its Strength and That Could Happen Again
(Window on Eurasia)
 “… Russia “just like a century ago is meeting a new year imaging itself as surrounded by enemies – and as Petersburg then hadn’t yet been renamed Petrograd, one feels that such the suggestion of a parallel is no accident.” But if history is repeating itself, it will be “not as a tragedy but as a farce,” although just how much of one remains to be seen."





- The Soviet Union Is Gone, But It’s Still Collapsing
(Foreign Policy)
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The USSR ceased to exist 25 years ago and the Russians are still reinventing themselves
(PRI)
“… most Russians met the occasion with a collective shrug."
- Russia: Fall and rise in 25 years
(BBC)
- Why do so many people miss the Soviet Union?
(The Washington Post)
- Why are there no Russian feature films on the dissolution of the USSR?
(The Calvert Journal)

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