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18 August, 2017


✔︎ Estonia Cuts Carbon Emissions by Planting Bogs
(National Geographic via Juta Ristsoo)
"Estonia is hoping to restore more than 50,000 acres of abandoned bogs at 89 sites. If successful, the project will be scaled up to abandoned peatlands in Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland.” 


✔︎ Siberi suursoo ääres elab vähetuntud külas eesti keel 
(Postimees)


✔︎ Zapad 2017: Russian military has been gathering in Belarus since Monday. 
(Deutsche Welle)



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Friday 18. May
_____________


- Tänavaküsitlus: mida arvavad turistid Eestist ning eestlastest?
(Postimees video)
[Interviews with tourists in Vana-Tallinn. In english.]



- Soome: Turu linnas toimunud pussitamises hukkus vähemalt kaks inimest
(Postimees | ERR | Yle)
—


- Finland: Two dead, six injured in stabbing in central Turku
(Yle | Deutsche Welle | others)
—
—
—



- E-Lifestyle and Cyber Security: Some Views from Estonia
by Marina Kaljurand 
(Emerging Europe)
"Despite the recent challenges to voting systems: attempts to interfere with elections and attempts to “hack democracy”, Estonia is committed to continue with i-voting. First – because the system is unique and security measures are taken very seriously, second – because we think that challenges should be met instead of surrendering, and last but not least – because the Estonian people want and trust i-voting …"

- How Estonia became a global heavyweight in cyber security
by Silver Tambur
(Estonian World)
"Ten years on from the world’s first cyber war, Estonia has become a global cyber security superpower."



- Minsk and Moscow issue separate invitations to observe ‘Zapad 2017’ exercise
(Jane’s 360)
"Moscow belatedly followed Minsk's invitation in July to arms inspectors and defence attachés from NATO and non-NATO countries … Belarus's invitations include Norway on a reciprocal basis, as well as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the United States, and Poland."



- Keskkonnakaitsjad võitlevad riigi raietingimuste vastu
(Postimees)
"Keskkonnaministeerium plaanib kiirkorras vastu võtta määruse muudatust, mis võimaldaks teha kaitsealade ja püsielupaikade piiranguvööndites sanitaarraie nime all lageraiet, mis kaitsealadel on reeglina keelatud. Keskkonnaühendused soovitavad ministeeriumil muudatustest loobuda."



- Kersti Kaljulaid ja Arvo Pärt külastasid Laulasmaal valmivat keskust
(ERR | Vorumaa Teataja)
—



- Finnish ferry passengers make historic shift: More travel to Estonia than Sweden
(Yle)
"Traffic to Estonia has been rising steeply since the start of the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed, but this is the first time since the agency's statistics on ferry transport began in 1980 that travel south across the Gulf of Finland has outstripped that to Sweden, across the Gulf of Bothnia."



✔︎ Propaganda 101: The Era of ‘Whatsapp' Propaganda Is Upon Us
(Foreign Policy)
[The author points out the theory that closed messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Viber will be used for misinformation and propaganda distribution to it's limited audience - “… no more than 500 friends of friends”. ] 
—
"The obscurity of messaging apps poses obvious problems for journalists trying to quickly find and debunk falsehoods on these platforms. To begin with, it’s harder for journalists or others trying to combat misinformation to identify just what is circulating on these platforms in first place. But even when a rumor has been pinpointed, it’s harder to take the first and necessary step in the fact-checking process of identifying the original source of a piece of content. Hoaxes on messaging services often don’t come with citations or hyperlinks ..." 



- Videod: vihm uputas Tallinnas tänavaid
(Postimees)





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Thursday 17. May
_____________


- Soome president Niinistö: kui Eesti ja Venemaa satuvad sõtta, puhkeb maailmasõda, aga seda ei saa juhtuda
(Delfi | Postimees)
"Kui NATO ja Venemaa on vastamisi, ei sünni kokkulepet, et hei, sõdime ainult Eestis või sõdime ainult Baltimaades. See tähendab maailmasõda, kui aus olla. Ja selle tõttu seda sõda ei tule.“
--



- Valga and Valka: Where Estonia and Latvia Work Together
(Emerging Europe)
"Two twin towns, Valga and Valka, on the border of Estonia and Latvia, have launched a project to ease integration into other countries’ job markets and to help with language barriers, qualification confirmation and documentation."



- Trammide normaalne rütm taastub septembrist
(ERR)
"Nõnda hakkab neljas trammiliin sõitma Tondilt Lennujaama, lisanduvad kaks uut peatust - Ülemiste linnak ja Lennujaam. … Tramm nr 4, mis hakkab lennujaamani sõitma, ei vii aga sadamani. Praegu läheb sadamaalale kõige lähemale tramm nr 2, ent projekteerimisel on ka trammitee pikendus sadamani."

- All four tram lines in Tallinn will be back in service in September
"Following the completion of the new extension, the number 4 line … will connect the city center to Tallinn Airport, with an additional new stop in Ülemiste City."



- Vene esimese aatomipommi loomisel osalenud Sillamäe saab 60
(Lõuna Leht)
"Sõjajärgsetel põlvkondadel polnud aimugi, et kunagises looduskaunis kohas Eestimaa põhjarannikul, kuhu ilma eriloata ligi ei pääsenud, salapäraga kaetud Sillamäel, toodeti uraanioksiide, mida vajati vene aatomipommide tootmiseks."



- Poland: Storms kill six, destroy tens of thousands of trees
(BBC | ABCNews | others)
"It is estimated the storms brought down over eight million cubic metres of lumber across 45,000 hectares of forest. Some of the hardest hit areas were Torun, Gdansk, and Poznan - all in the northern and western parts of the country. … worst ever recorded by the national forestry agency founded in 1924."
—
—
—
- Clearing up storm damage to Polish forests will take until 2019
(Radio Poland)



- EU migrants can live in Britain after Brexit
(The Times-Uk)
"EU citizens could enter the UK without a visa but would need a permit to work."



- U.S. eelarvekärped puudutavad Ida-Euroopat 
(Äripäev)


- Trump Budget Plan Is Bad News for Eastern Europe
(Bloomberg)







_____________

- Russia’s A2/AD Bubble -
[Anti-access/area-denial exclusion zones]
_____________

A2/AD: a military strategy which seeks to create exclusion zones, which are extremely costly for an opponent to enter.


- Russia’s A2/AD Capabilities
(Foreign Policy Association)

- It is time to burst the western A2/AD bubble
(The Royal Swedish Academy of War Science)

- Russia's A2/AD Bubble in the Baltic Sea
(The National Interest)
—

- Limiting Russia’s Anti-Access/Area-Denial Strategy in the Baltic
(NATO Association of Canada)

- Kaliningrad oblast: Russia`s formidable A2/AD bubble
(New Eastern Europe)

- The Baltic Defense Bubble
(World Affairs - Oct. 2015)





_____________

Wednesday 16. May
_____________


- Arvamus: Metsavendade sõda kestab edasi
Eerik-Niiles Kross
(Postimees)



- USA ründelennukid maandusid esmakordselt Kuressaare lennuväljal
(Postimees | ERR)
"Harjutuse ajal lendavad ründelennukid nii mere kui ka Kuressaare kohal ja sooritavad ka madallende. Harjutuste vahel paiknevad lennukid Kuressaare lennuväljal. Teistele õhusõidukitele kehtestatakse harjutuste ajaks Kuressaare linna, Roomassaare sadama ja Abruka saare ümbruses piirangutega lennuala."
—

- Combat controllers enable global access in Estonia
(U.S. Air Force)



- Opinion: Russia’s Zapad 2017 military exercises: Could they turn into war?
(CNN)
"In Russia and neighboring Belarus, preparations are underway for Zapad -- a major military exercise to be held in September. The two countries' Western neighbors are worried. Zapad is Russian for "West," and of all the different major exercises in the Russian military calendar, it causes the most excitement and concern because it is the one that most closely resembles practice for invading those neighbors. As a result, this regular event receives a lot more attention than other Russian manoeuvers of similar size."

- Russia to present Zapad exercise to military attaches at separate event
(ERR)
“Military attaches accredited to Moscow have been invited to attend an event at Luga Training Camp on Sept. 18-19, in the course of which Russia will present the Zapad joint military exercise," Ministry of Defence spokesperson Susan Lilleväli told BNS on Wednesday. "The Estonian defense attaches are ready to take part in the event.”
—
"Belarus has sent invitations to Estonia and other countries, which Estonia has already chosen to accept, to observe the exercise on its territory."

- Vene väed suunduvad Valgevenesse õppustele. Kas nad ka koju lähevad?
(Delfi - subscription)





_____________

Tuesday 15. May
_____________


✔︎ Siberi suursoo ääres elab vähetuntud külas eesti keel
(Postimees)
"Siberi taiga ja Vasjugani soo piiril kõneleb terve Nikolajevka küla mahlakat lõunaeesti murret, kuid Kodu-Eestis ei teata neist peaaegu midagi."



- Baltic Past and Present Successes Explain Moscow’s Schizophrenic Propaganda Response
(Window on Eurasia)
"Russian propaganda about the Baltic countries insists that they are marginal, but the amount of that Moscow effort underscores just the reverse: their success in resisting Sovietization and overcoming a half century of occupation by rejoining the West shows what other former Soviet fiefdoms might be able to do, according to Viktor Denisenko.”
--
"Brussels has boldly shown that it considers the [Russian] threat to the security of the Baltic countries to be real.” But “more than that, NATO has shown that in the alliance there are no second-class members. All the territory of NATO is a common zone of security” which can and will be defended.”  

- Балтийский фронт кремлевской пропаганды: история стратегического провала
(Newsader)


- What Estonia learned from Russian hacking
(Quartz)
"Estonia’s journey down the digital road has been astonishingly fast. When it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it had almost no money and few natural resources. But it did have one advantage: It was the designated center for software and computer production for the USSR. After achieving independence, the country had a pool of tech expertise for them to build on."



- Call-ups for nearly 35,000 Finnish youths
(Finnish Defence Force)
"The Finnish Defence Forces will start call-ups in accordance with the Conscription Act on Tuesday 15 August. The autumn 2017 call-ups concern mainly the age group born in 1999. Altogether 477 separate call-up events will be arranged. Call-up events will be arranged all over Finland, in 250 different localities."





_____________

Monday 14. May
_____________


- 6 Reasons to Visit Estonia, Now
(Huffington Post)



✔︎ Estonia should not frantically fear Russia
(ERR)
"You are in the EU and NATO and thus not only are you sheltered, but you have become an independent and fully-fledged state. … This is why we tell you occasionally to calm down and that it isn't worth being panicked. Which does not mean, of course, that we would say that there is no reason to be concerned when looking toward Russia.” - Tarja Halonen, President of Finland 2000-2012



- Interview: Alexander Stubb and Taavi Rõivas 
(Postimees)
"Former prime ministers of Finland and Estonia Alexander Stubb and Taavi Rõivas told Postimees about their terms in office when Europe temporarily lost its head as a result of Russia’s aggression. They also answered the question why former UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure at the Brexit referendum was a culmination of the past few decades."



- Interview: Katri Raik
(Postimees)
"Narva can only be changed from the inside. … This fall, Raik and 60 like-minded individuals want to end a quarter of a century of Center Party politicians’ hegemony in the city.”

- Intervjuu: Katri Raik
(Postimees)
"Kohalik Narva võim on aastatega õppinud tegutsema rohkem iseenda kui narvalaste huvides, väidab linnapeakandidaat, Isamaa ja Res Publica Liitu kuuluv Katri Raik (49). Sel sügisel tahab ta koos 60 mõttekaaslasega lõpetada Narvas veerand sajandit kestnud keskerakondliku taustaga poliitikute ainuvõimu."



- Estonia Cuts Carbon Emissions by Planting Bogs
(National Geographic)
"This year, with $8 million in funding from the European Union, Estonia is hoping to restore more than 50,000 acres of abandoned bogs at 89 sites. If successful, the “LIFE Mires” project will be scaled up to abandoned peatlands in Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland."

- The LIFE Mires Estonia Project





_____________

Sunday 13. May
_____________


- The story of Vaba Ukraina: Three years of Estonian support for Ukraine
(EuroMaidan Press)



- Opinion: Is Defending the Baltics Worth It?
(Diplomatic Courier)
"Located just a stone’s throw away from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Baltic intelligence officers are the ones with the sharpest binoculars. The expertise on Russia is clearly there. “They [the Baltics] see things that we don’t see. They can go to places that we don’t go. They understand things that we don’t in cyber and intelligence—stuff that we neglected.” - Edward Lucas




_____________

- Belarus -
_____________


- Russia readies troops for Zapad war games with Belarus
(Deutsche Welle)
"Moscow's heavy troop presence has some worrying whether Minsk's sovereignty is at risk."
—

- ГЛАВНЫЙ СЕКРЕТ «ЗАПАДА-2017»
(Daily Journal)



- A new Chernobyl at your doorstep?
(Open Democracy)
"Belarus is building its first nuclear power station. Concerns about the project’s safety aren’t deterring the authorities. … One of the major complaints concerns the choice of location. Set near the small town of Astravets, less than 50km from Vilnius, the site also falls within an earthquake-prone area. Lithuanian authorities allege that Belarus did not conduct a cross-border environmental impact assessment, in breach of the Espoo Convention, and that in an event of a large-scale accident at the nuclear plant, the Lithuanian capital, as well as a third of the country’s population, could face catastrophic consequences."
map



- Emotions Simmer in an Ostensibly Emotionless Land
(Jamestown)
“… the results of Gallup’s 2017 Global Emotions Report (Gallup.com, 2017) made it to Belarus and became the second most debated topic in the country. Belarusians turned out to be the least emotional people out of 142 national groups probed by Gallup. The outcome is based on whether or not the respondents experienced certain feelings “yesterday”: five of the questions pertain to positive and five to negative feelings.”



- Russia-West Balancing Act Grows Ever More Wobbly in Belarus
(New York Times)
“… with major Russian military exercises scheduled for next month in Belarus, opposition leaders, analysts and even the American military fear that (President Aleksandr G.) Lukashenko’s tightrope act may be coming to a close."






_____________

- Russia -
"Trust No One"
_____________


- The "New Cold War" ten years on
by Edward Lucas
(CEPA)
[The author critiques his own book, which came out in 2008.]

- How Comrade Trump Unleashed a Cold War in America
(Vanity Fair)



- Podcast: The Calm Before The Storm
Hosted by Brian Whitmore
(RFERL)
Discussion of the "potential tempests below the surface in Russian domestic politics and foreign affairs."



- Putin Era is Coming to an End and Both He and Other Russians Recognize That, Moscow Sociologist Says
by Paul Goble
(Window on Eurasia)
"Most analysts predict that he will continue in office as long as he wants and that therefore at a minimum it is premature to speak of the approaching end of the Putin era. But Moscow sociologist Sergey Balanovsky doesn’t agree …"

- PEW uuring: Venemaad näeb ohuna ligi kolmandik maailma elanikest
(ERR)
"Maailmas keskmiselt usub ainult veerand inimestest, et Vene presidendi Vladimir Putini tegevus rahvusvahelisel areenil on õige, kuid samas näeb Venemaad ohuna oma riigile siiski ainult pisut alla kolmandiku vastanutest, selgub uuringufirma Pew korraldatud küsitlusest 37 eri maailmajagudes asuvas riigis."

- Survey: Publics Worldwide Are Unfavorable Toward Putin, Russia
(Pew Research - 16. August)
"Europeans are particularly harsh in their assessment of Putin, with a median in Europe of 78% expressing a lack of confidence in the leader."

- Russian Media Skewed Pew Center Poll on Putin
(The Moscow Times)



- Russian National Guard: the watchdog that could break the leash
By Mark Galeotti
(Raam op Rusland)
"Vladimir Putin’s creation of the National Guard in 2016 was, rightly and understandably, regarded with a degree of anxiety by many within Russia, even within the security structures. At a stroke, this united almost 400,000 security personnel across the country into a new organisation directly responsible to one of Putin’s closest and most heavy-handed henchmen, adding a new player into the bureaucratic politics of Moscow. This Rosgvardiya became properly operational in the autumn of that year and now, a year on, it is possible to see that a move primarily intended to shore up Putin’s strength and control carries within it seeds for future problems. …"



- КРЫМ: The big budget Russian blockbuster the world will never see
(The Guardian-Uk)
"Film depicting Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea (КРЫМ) from Ukraine will only be shown in Russia and Belarus. … The film will not be shown in Ukraine."

“This is the kind of decision that is only taken once a century,” says a voice on the trailer for Crimea."



- The August Vote That Changed Russia’s History
August 16, 1999
(World Affairs Journal)
“(An) extraordinary session of the Duma was called in the midst of the August recess to consider the nomination. The candidate’s name was Vladimir Putin, and he was little-known even to many in the establishment, let alone the public at large. Yeltsin’s announcement that he would like to see the premier-designate succeed him in the Kremlin was met with ridicule."
—
“… the appointment of what was likely to be yet another caretaker prime minister—Russia’s sixth in seventeen months—did not seem like an important matter.”



- The Midnight Train to Moscow
Riding the rails to Russia with the migrant workers of Central Asia
(Foreign Policy)
“People only ride the train once. … Passengers want a relaxed four-day ride. But then they get on and see that it is a hellhole.”



- BAM railway: A Trip Through Putin Country
(Project Syndicate)
"Russia’s Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railway “can be hardly named as a popular tourist attraction,” says one tourist website of the some 2,000-mile railway traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. … BAM was “the construction project of the century,” pushing, cutting, and tunneling its way through thousands of miles of rivers, forests, and cliffs usually covered in permafrost. Today, it endures in the mythology of the Soviet Union chiefly as a monument to collective effort."



- Photos and Essay: The ruins of a uranium mining Russian prison camp
(Meduza)
"Moscow’s Gulag History Museum completed an expedition to the Magadan region, where researchers catalogued the remains of the “Butugychag” prison camp. Beginning in the mid-1940s, inmates at this facility mined and enriched the uranium used to create Soviet nuclear weapons."



- Russia’s High Tech Tool Box for Subverting US Democracy
(Wired)
"The coordinated and multifaceted Russia efforts in the 2016 election—from the attacks on the DNC and John Podesta’s email to a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. that bears all the hallmarks of an intelligence mission—likely involved every major Russian intelligence service: the foreign intelligence service (known as the SVR) as well as the state security service (the FSB, the successor to the KGB), and the military intelligence (the GRU), both of which separately penetrated servers at the DNC. Understanding just how extensive and coordinated Russia’s operations against the West are represents the first step in confronting—and defeating—Putin’s increased aggression …"



- Road To Dispossession: Locals Pushed Aside For Trans-Crimea Highway
(RFERL)
“… bulldozers and other construction machinery have begun clearing the area to make way for the construction of a highway that is planned to someday span the entire Crimean Peninsula and connect to the Kerch Bridge."
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