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06 October, 2017



✔︎ Kaitseväe peastaap: Eestis pole NATO sõdurite telefone häkitud  (ERR)

✔︎ Idapiiri valmimine lükkub edasi - 2020  
(Postimees)

✔︎  “The Catalan crisis will have wider ramifications for EU politics. One crucial element revolves around the state of European democracy.”  
(Carnegie Europe)

[More on the situation in Catalonia is toward the end of this newsletter.]


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✔︎ Esto-Atlantis Concert at New York’s Lincoln Center 1. April 2018 celebrating Estonian-American composer Helen Tobias-Duesberg
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- Painting:

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Friday 6. October
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✔︎ Kaitseväe peastaap: Eestis pole NATO sõdurite telefone häkitud
(ERR)
"Kaitseväe peastaabi pressiesindaja Simmo Saar ütles, et Wall Street Journalis kirjeldatud juhtumit, kus Tapa sõjaväelinnaku lähedal väidetavalt NATO sõdurite nutitelefonidesse häkiti, pole toimunud.”
[Defense spokesman Simmo Saar said that NATO soldiers’ smartphones at the Tapa military camp have not been hacked. This appears to be a response to Wednesday's Wall Street Journal hacking article.]



- Kohalikud Valimised 2017
(Postimees | Delfi)

- Eesti Valimiskompass 2017
(Postimees)

- E-voting explained step by step
(ERR)
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A quick guide to the local elections in Estonia for expats
(Medium)
(Also on Estonian World)



- Idapiiri valmimine lükkub edasi - 2020
(Postimees)
"Nüüd ütles Lõuna prefektuuri piirivalvebüroo juht Tamar Tamm Postimehele, et selliseid lubadusi pole vast keegi julgenud anda, et piir valmib tuleval aastal. "Võimalik, et see oli väga-väga esialgne plaan, millest kõneldi siis, kui alustati piiriala puhastamist. See oli nii ehk naa pisut liiga optimistlik."

"Tamme sõnul on nüüd räägitud piiri valmimise tähtajana aastast 2020."

- Completion of Estonia's eastern border to be delayed
(ERR | Postimees)
"Estonia's modern eastern border with Russia was initially planned to be completed by 2018 or 2019 at the latest, currently even test sections of the border have not yet been finished. … Of the 136 kilometers of land border with Russia in Southeastern Estonia, just two 1.6-kilometer test sections have been partially completed so far."



✔︎ This Prefab Mirrored House Can Be Plopped Almost Anywhere
(New York Magazine | Inhabitat)
“It was while hiking through the forests of southern Estonia with their girlfriends that Andreas Tiik, 29, and his brother, Jaak, 40, came up with an idea that would lead to the creation of … a prototype for a 200-square-foot prefab mirrored-glass box: simple, pristine, and easy to place in any landscape.”
"Each cabin, at a cost of $65,000, is delivered in one piece. You can literally plop it down on secure ground, or install it on its six concrete posts (provided), if the ground requires more stability. No proper foundation is needed." 
"Installation of the ÖÖD only takes eight hours to complete."
- Catalonia and European Democracy
(Carnegie Europe)
[More on the situation in Catalonia is toward the end of this newsletter.]



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Thursday 5. October
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✔︎ When “Journalism” Becomes Disinformation
by Urve Eslas
(CEPA)
"European laws and regulations are not equipped to deal with disinformation weaponized by the state and disguised as a media. To change that, the West needs a unified approach to distinguish state-owned disinformation tools from journalism."



- Russia may have tested cyber warfare on Latvia
(Euronews)
"Russia is suspected of interrupting the mobile network along Latvia’s western coast for seven hours on Aug. 30, NATO diplomats and Latvian security officials said. A communications jammer aimed towards Sweden from Russia’s Baltic outpost Kaliningrad may have been used. Latvian officials suspect Moscow targeted Latvia’s emergency services’ 112 hotline, which failed for the first time on Sept. 13, just before the most intensive phase of Russia’s biggest war games since 2013, known as Zapad, or West, the officials said. “Russia appears to have switched on a mobile communications jammer in Kaliningrad, a very powerful one that wasn’t aimed at Latvia, but towards Gotland, the Aland Islands,” said Karlis Serzants, the deputy chairman of the Latvian parliament’s National Security Committee. “One of the edges (of the beam) affected Latvia too.”



- NATO Chief Says Alliance Assessing Whether All Russian Troops Left Belarus
(RFERL)
“… it is too early to make any final assessment ..."



- Finland wins admirers with all-inclusive approach to defense
(Deutsche Welle)
"A widely circulated 2015 Gallup poll showed 74 percent of Finns said they'd be willing to take up arms to defend their country - the highest figure by far in Europe."

- Finland opens a new center to fight 'hybrid threats' from Russia
(PRI)


- Should the Air Force of Finland Get Rid of the Swastika?
by Teivo Teivainen
Professor of World Politics, University of Helsinki

- Does Finland need its swastikas?
(Yle)






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Wednesday 4. October
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✔︎ Claim: Russia hacking phones of NATO soldiers in Eastern Europe
(Engadget | Techspot | others)
"The attacks have targeted the iCloud accounts, Facebook pages, and cell phones of about 4,000 NATO troops. The methods used in the attacks are relatively simple, but could expose classified data about troop movements and mission plans.”
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"The incidents are believed to involve simple tactics like the Find My iPhone attack, phishing links, or fake social media profiles. … A hacked phone might serve as a Trojan horse if it connects to a secure network.
“… in March, an Estonian soldier experienced similarly bizarre interference on his cellphone: hip-hop music he hadn’t even downloaded randomly started playing on his device.”
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- NATO commander: Someone in Moscow tried to hack his phone
(PBS video)







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Tuesday 3. October 
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- Suur ülevaade: Kersti Kaljulaidi 364 päeva presidendina
(ERR)



Essay: When Stalin Faced Hitler
(Foreign Affairs)




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Monday 2. October
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Borderlands: Life with Russia as a neighbor
(Politico-Europe)
"Documentary photographers from the collective TerraProject set out this year to document Russia’s relationship with eight Western neighbors living in its shadow — from border towns to industrial ports — and to explore their unique political, cultural and ecological relationships."



Zapad 2017 Demonstrated Russia’s Growing Military Prowess
(New York Times)
"Preliminary Pentagon and NATO assessments of the exercise, one of the largest of its kind since the end of the Cold War, are classified and will take months to complete. But Western officials said the military maneuvers, known as Zapad, Russian for “west,” far exceeded in scope and scale what Moscow had said it would conduct, and tracked more closely to what American intelligence officials suspected would unfold, based on Russian troop buildups in August.”
"Officials said it was still too soon to determine whether Russia would use the exercises to permanently station more troops and matériel in Belarus. Some American analysts said Mr. Putin would not necessarily need to do so, given that he had successfully carried out an exercise in intimidation that drew worldwide news coverage and recalled the most ominous days of the Cold War."



- Vanalinna tulevad kaitsetõkked kaubikurünnakute vastu
(ERR)
"Tallinna linnavalitsus ning politsei- ja piirivalveamet on pannud seljad kokku, et raskendada autoterrorismi Tallinna vanalinna käidavates kohtades. Nii tulevad tänavatele kaitsetõkked, mis takistaksid autodega jalakäijate sekka sõitmist."



Commentary: Talk of Tallinn, empty except for the calories
(Politico-Europe)
"There were 29 leaders around the table and at least 30 different ideas about how to move the EU forward."



The Black Sheep of NATO
(World Affairs Journal)
The author points out “… that NATO is being undermined from within and lacks the will to defend its own values and interests."




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 EU: Catalonia Referendum 
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Spain's Flawed Response to the Catalonian Referendum
(Foreign Affairs)
"Madrid responded to this weekend’s referendum on Catalan independence by sending in thousands of police, who beat up voters and shot nonviolent activists with rubber bullets. It is difficult to picture a more counterproductive course of action."


- Catalan parliament defies Madrid pressure, works on independence declaration
(Reuters)
"Catalan secessionists were working on Friday toward a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain that could be adopted next week in defiance of a court order and increased economic pressure from Madrid."


- Catalonia held a referendum. Russia won.
(Washington Post)
"The European Commission backed Madrid in describing the vote as illegal and said an independent Catalonia would not be part of the union. President Trump also rejected the independence movement; the Catalan nationalists’ only backers are separatist-ruled Scotland, the pariah government of Venezuela and Russia’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus, which mobilized its media outlets and social media bots in support of the separatists."


- Russian meddling playbook seen in violent Catalonia vote
(Washington Times)
"The divisive nature of Sunday’s chaotic poll, in which voters backed the Catalonia regional government’s disputed referendum to declare independence from Spain, featured Russian state-backed news outlets and social network robotic accounts leveraging the mayhem to push the Kremlin’s larger anti-Western and anti-democracy themes."


How Russian news networks are using Catalonia to destabilize Europe
(EL PAÍS)
"… millions of automated social media accounts can turn lies into trending topics."


- Catalonia poses a real crisis for both Spain and Europe
(Washington Post)


Rajoy threatens to impose direct rule on Catalonia
(The Times-UK)


Catalan leader sends mixed message on independence
(EU Observer)


Opinion: The EU has tied its own hands. It cannot intervene in Catalonia.
(The Guardian)


- Big banks plan to abandon Catalonia over its crisis with Spain
(PRI | Politico)


Russia Reacts To Spanish Turmoil
(RFERL)
"Some Russian media compared the referendum to a vote Russia staged in occupied Crimea during its military annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, while others speculated that Brussels "ordered" Madrid to carry out "repressive action" to nip the referendum in the bud."


- Kaljulaid: Catalans' situation not comparable with that of Estonia leaving USSR
(Baltic Times)

"The situation of Catalans cannot be compared with that of Estonia when our country left the Soviet Union, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid told public broadcaster ERR on Monday.”
--
"Spain is a democratic country which has a Constitution that has been approved also by the people living in Catalonia, so it is in accordance with that Constitution that you have to act at every given moment."

Opinion: Why Catalonia Will Fail Where Crimea Succeeded
(Bloomberg)
"There are good reasons why the Russian propaganda machine backed Sunday's Catalan referendum and the Ukrainian foreign ministry denounced it " as "illegitimate." The Catalan situation draws comparisons with that in Crimea in 2014, and they are not as easy to dismiss as Catalan independence supporters might think."





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- Russia -
"Trust No One"
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✔︎ For Putin’s 65th Birthday, a Crackdown on His Opponents
by Anna Nemtsova
(The Daily Beast)
"Thursday morning began with a violent police crackdown on Russian opposition activists all over Moscow. Crowds of policemen raided homes, interrogating opposition activists, terrifying children and family members, breaking and confiscating property."

- Moscow Authorities Bar Navalny Rallies on Putin’s Birthday
(The Moscow Times)
"They are very afraid of Oct. 7.”
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- Moskvat tabas järjekordne pommiähvarduste laviin
(Postimees)
"Venemaa eriteenistuse FSB juht Aleksandr Bortnikov teatas, et pommiähvardusi tegid neli Venemaa kodanikku, kes viibivad välismaal ning kellel on Venemaal kaasosalised."

- Moscow faces 130 fake bomb calls, evacuates 100,000 people
(AP | Moscow Times)
"Moscow on Friday faced over 130 fake bomb calls that prompted the evacuation of people from shopping malls, schools, railway stations and office buildings."



- Russia’s internet law changed on 1 October.
(Calvert Journal)
"All proxies and ‘mirrors' of websites already banned for piracy are going to be blocked much faster … VPN services might be blocked [VPN allows internet users both to surf the web incognito and to access content that has been blocked by the government.] … Search engines will also be required to stop displaying links to banned websites in search results that are shown to Russian users … chat, telephone and text message logs will be stored by service providers (mobile and internet networks) for up to three years …" 



- New N.S.A. Breach Linked to Popular Russian Antivirus Software
(New York Times)
"Investigators believe the hackers may have penetrated the computer by exploiting Kaspersky Lab antivirus software, a Russian brand widely used around the world …"

- Kaspersky Lab denies involvement in Russian hack of NSA contractor
(The Guardian)



- Putin Budget Points to Another Lost Decade for Russia, ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says
(Window on Eurasia)
"The three-year budget the Russian government has proposed suggests that Russia will continue to stagnate, poverty will continue to grow, and the country will fall further and further behind the developed world and even its nearest neighbors …"
--
- Russians are Being Cooked on Low Heat, Like Frogs in a Pot



- Moscow Deploys Facial Recognition to Spy on Citizens in Streets
(Interpreter | Bloomberg)
"Moscow has added FindFace, the facial-recognition technology, to a network of 170,000 surveillance cameras around the city. … Moscow's closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance is believed to be the world's largest …"
"But it's the political uses of this software to suppress and punish dissent that could have the most ramifications for the future of free societies."
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- Russia to complete its missile warning radar network by 2019
(Pro-Kremlim TASS)
“Currently, the new-generation Voronezh radars are on combat duty in the Leningrad, Kaliningrad and Irkutsk Regions, as well as in the Kransnodar Territory."



Putin: I have 'zero personal relationship' with Trump
(Politico)

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