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28 April, 2017

✔︎ Estonian media looks back 10 years to 
‘Pronksiöö’ (Bronze Night)
"In the early morning of Apr. 28, 2007, the Estonian authorities removed the Bronze Soldier monument from its location on Tõnismägi and disinterred the remains of the Soviet soldiers buried at the site. The days of unrest across the capital and Ida-Viru County have since become known as the Bronze Night riots. …” - ERR

✔︎ Intervjuu: Marju Lauristin  
'Pronksiöö on puhtal kujul meediasündmus'
(ERR)
[Marju Lauristan says the 10th anniversary of Bronze Night is pure media event.]


 ✔︎ Intervjuu: Andrus Ansip 
'täna teeks kõike veel kiiremini'
(Postimees)


✔︎ Interview: Andrus Ansip
'I would do it even sooner today'
(Postimees)
"For me, the decision to move the monument was made in 2006 when it was no longer possible to wave the Estonian flag in the heart of the country's capital. That was the last straw for me. Yes, I played a decisive role. However, it was due to my office. Anyone else would have done the same thing in the prime minister's shoes."




✔︎ Ülevaade: Kümme aastat pronksööst
(Postimees)



✔︎ Timeline: How the Bronze Soldier was removed
(ERR)


✔︎ President Kaljulaid on veendunud, et pronksiöö taolist sündmust enam Eestis ei tule
(Postimees | ERR)
[Kaljulaid is convinced that an event like Bronze Night will not happen again.]
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Friday 28. April
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- Russia may station troops in Belarus to challenge Nato after Zapad 2017, warns Estonia
(The Independent-Uk | RFERL)
“… Estonia and other Nato governments had intelligence suggesting Moscow may leave Russian soldiers in Belarus once the so-called Zapad 2017 exercises are over [September], also pointing to public data of Russian railway traffic to Belarus.
--
Tsahkna cited plans to send 4,000 railway carriages to Belarus to transport Russian troops and gear there, possibly to set up a military outpost in its closest ally.
--
“For Russian troops going to Belarus, it is a one-way ticket.” 
- Remembering Russia's First Web War: Bronze Night
(RFERL)
“The cyberattacks and the rioting were ostensibly in response to Estonia's decision to relocate a Soviet World War II monument from the center of Tallinn. But in reality, the Kremlin was sending a message to its neighbors and to the West that it was ready to play hardball. … And it was also a test drive of strategies and tactics that would later be deployed in Georgia, Ukraine, and in points much farther to the West."
--
"All the elements we've come to know all too well were there -- the manufactured crisis, the dramaturgy, the hacking, the use of ethnic-Russian proxies, the plausible deniability, and the disinformation."

- How a cyber attack transformed Estonia
(BBC)

- 10 Years After the Landmark Attack on Estonia, Is the World Better Prepared for Cyber Threats?
(Foreign Policy)



✔︎ Is This Tiny European Nation a Preview of Our Tech Future?
(Fortune Tech)
[Watch their video 'How Estonia Became a Tech Powerhouse’. A version of this article appears in the May 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline "Welcome to Tomorrow Land."]



- Harsh Brexit truth for EU’s minnows
(Politico-Europe 21. April)
"Estonians are forced to plan much earlier than others on how to cope with Brexit. Take infrastructure investment, for example. Up to 90 percent of such long-term investments in Estonia rely on some form of EU funding."
--
"While Estonian officials insisted that the EU is “remarkably united” when it comes to ensuring the U.K. pays what it owes on departure, they don’t expect any of that cash to find its way to Estonia.”
—
"Ironically for countries that oppose Soviet-style economic planning, the lesson they are taking from Brexit is that those who plan, win."



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Thursday 27. April
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- Cloak and Dagger: Three U.S. and British intelligence-gathering planes spotted in the Baltic region while the two F-35A fighters visited Ämari
(The Aviationist)
The article is full of technical aviation jargon but the main idea is this:
--
As the F-35 fighters headed towards Ämari in formation with their tanker, as many as three intelligence-gathering planes (two US one RAF) operated in the airspaces over or close to Estonia. One US plane positioned itself off of Kaliningrad. The second US plane set itself up between the Ämari airfield and the Russian border, over the Tapa / Rakvere area. One could only speculate the reason for this operation.


Intelligence-gathering planes are observed frequently over the Baltics, but ... "the presence of three such spyplanes not too far away from one another seems to suggest their missions were coordinated and probably related to something big happening.”
--
Reportedly when the F-35s departed Ämari to return to the UK, the three intelligence-gathering planes also headed back to their homebases.



- Sending two F-35s to the region doesn't hold much military significance, but that's not the point.
(The Drive)



- Hävitajate F-35 tulekut valvas Eestis USA üliharuldane luurelennuk
(Delfi)



_____________

- Rail Baltic -
_____________

- Eesti on seni Rail Balticu osas kõige taga, Riia kavandab juba uhket raudteesõlme
(Postimees | ERR)
--
- Opinion: Rail Baltic debate finally gets more realistic
(ERR - 28. April)


- Arvamus: Rail Balticuga vassida ei tohiks
(Postimees)

- Analüüs: Rail Baltic on rahaliselt ja majanduslikult elujõuline
(Äripäev - 24. Aprill)

- Analysis: Rail Baltic project to have €3.96 billion gap
(ERR)

- Siim Kallas on Rail Baltica
(Latvian Public Broadcasting)

- Rail Baltica: a new corridor for the Baltic states
(Railway Technology)

- Rail Baltica: Benefits outweigh the costs
(BNN)

- Protests in Tallinn against current shape of Rail Baltic project
(ERR - 22. April)




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Wednesday 26. April
_____________

- Küberkaitse õppus "Locked Shields 2017”
(ERR)
"Tallinnas toimub esmaspäevast reedeni NATO küberkaitsekeskuse korraldatav suurõppus, millest võtab osa ligi 800 inimest 25 riigist."

- Estonia's cyber crisis management capability improved in decade
(ERR)



- Future Moon Orbiting CubeSat Prototype Being Tested By Estonia; Slated To Launch In 2019
(Science Times)
"The main goal of ESTCube-2 is to test technologies for ESTCube-3 to avoid problems in a much less forgiving and more expensive moon orbit. The reason why we want to launch ESTCube-3 to the moon orbit is that E-sail's authentic environment is the solar wind, which in low Earth orbit is blocked by the Earth's magnetosphere. From satellite design point of view, the lack of a magnetic field changes the way we can control the satellite's attitude. Instead of electromagnetic coils and magnetometers we are have to use reaction wheel, propulsion and star tracker."
—



- Estonia: The Little Spycatcher Who Could
(The Daily Beast)
"Estonia is Europe’s leading catcher of Vladimir Putin’s spies as well as Europe’s leading unmasker of his manifold agents of influence. It is uncharacteristically unafraid to advertise its own national security threats by naming and shaming its yearly haul of enemy operatives, at least in comparison to other Western NATO democracies, which tend to hush up such bilateral embarrassments ..."



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Tuesday 25. April
_____________

- Eestisse saabusid USA F-35A hävitajad
(ERR | Postimees |Delfi graafik)
—
“Sellega on lahe lennata, õnneks ma ei pea ise maksma."
--
—


- U.S. F35s fly into Estonia in show of NATO solidarity
(Reuters)
"Two of the U.S. Air Force's newest and most advanced jets landed in the Baltic state of Estonia for the first time on Tuesday, a symbolic gesture meant to reinforce the United States' commitment to the defense of NATO allies that border Russia."
--
--
--
- Delfi video:




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Monday 24. April
_____________

- Usu või mitte: Eestimaalased joovad aina vähem
(Postimees)
"Arvestuste kohaselt oli tarbimine 2016. aastal 9,9 liitrit ühe täiskasvanud elaniku kohta (absoluutalkoholina) ja võrreldes 2015. aastaga on tarbimise langus 6%."



- President Kaljulaid meets U.S. Speaker Paul Ryan
(ERR)
“NATO today is stronger than ever, and the USA’s contribution to this cannot be overestimated,” Kaljulaid said. She added that the U.S. had been one of Estonia’s closest allies since the country regained its independence and the last of the Russian troops left the country."

- U.S. House Speaker Stresses Importance Of NATO During Estonia Visit
(RFERL)
"Ryan, the most powerful person in the House and an ally of President Donald Trump, on April 22 said that "we feel very strong that the NATO alliance is extremely crucial and essential. … Our strong support for NATO is unequivocal, unambiguous," he said after meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas.”

- Russia probe will help US allies
(ABCNews)
"One of the reasons the U.S. Congress has launched an investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election is to "prevent the same kind of thing happening" to its NATO and other allies, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Saturday. Ryan spoke at a news conference with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, during a visit by a bipartisan congressional delegation to the Baltic NATO member and staunch Washington ally.”
—
"He thanked Estonia, a country of 1.3 million, for its strong commitment to cyber defense and NATO, and for being one of the very few NATO members to spend two percent of its GDP on defense."We're here to say thank you for meeting that pledge," Ryan said."



- Mogherini Says EU Sanctions To Stay, Criticizes Russia
(RFERL | Deutsche Welle)
"European Union foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini says that Brussels wants better ties with Russia but cannot pretend Moscow did not annex Crimea …"
--
—

- TASS ignores sanctions and Crimea Topics



- Hybrid war in the High North: Finland responds to the Russian threat
(CEPA)
"So the new center on hybrid warfare being set up in the Finnish capital Helsinki is a welcome, if belated and modest development. So far Britain, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and the United States have signed up to the Finnish initiative. So have the European Union and NATO. Oddly, neighboring Estonia has not …”

- Reform urges Estonia to join center for countering hybrid threats
(ERR)
"Estonia's incomprehensible passiveness on a subject so important for our security works as a worrying signal. I hope that the government will reconsider and Estonia will join the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in the near future.” - Reform MP Eerik-Niiles Kross




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- Off Topic -
_____________

- Book: 'Martin Luther - Renegade and Prophet'
by Lyndal Roper
(Washington Post | New York Times)
"In 1517, Martin Luther was an unknown academic in search of a cause. Only a few years later, he was the most published author in the history of Christendom. By the time of his death in 1546, the church was riven into competing confessions, Protestant and Catholic, with consequences we still live with today.”
—

- Preview -
(Amazon)



- Icelanders Seek to Keep Their Language Alive and Out of ‘the Latin Bin’
(New York Times)
“The revered Icelandic language, seen by many as a source of identity and pride, is being undermined by the widespread use of English, both in the tourism industry and in the voice-controlled artificial intelligence devices coming into vogue. Linguistics experts, studying the future of a language spoken by fewer than 400,000 people in an increasingly globalized world, wonder if this is the beginning of the end for the Icelandic tongue."






_____________

- Russia -
"Trust No One"
_____________

- “Russophobia"
(Brian Whitmore, RFERL, 26. April)
"The term Russophobia first appears in the Russian language in 1867, when Fyodor Tyutchev, a Slavophile poet, diplomat, and agent of the Third Department of the Tsar's Office - effectively the secret police - used it to describe opponents and critics of the monarchy."
--
"Tyutchev primarily applied the term to Poles who sought liberation from the Russian Empire. In the 19th century, it was those "Russophobic" Poles seeking national liberation. Today, it's those "Russophobic" Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians who are seeking to preserve their independence. And, of course, anybody else who supports them or dares criticize the Kremlin." 



- Hallmarks of Soviet postwar building boom are finally meeting their demise
(Washington Post)
[The continuing story of Moscow’s demolition of it’s ‘khrushchevka’ buildings.]



- Interview: Alexei Navalny
(Spiegel)
"The Kremlin Blocks Every Alternative to Putin"



- Media: Springtime for Russia’s dissident press
(Politico-Europe)
"Based in Latvia, the Meduza Project is taking on the Kremlin.”

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