Powered By Blogger

16 February, 2018


- Text of the Indictment
(U.S. Department of Justice)
["The indictment represents the first charges by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, for meddling in the 2016 presidential election - the fundamental crime that he was assigned to investigate." - NY Times]


_____________

- Archive:

_____________

Friday 16. 
February
_____________


✔︎ Estonian centennial events leading up to Independence Day
(ERR)



✔︎ Russian troll farm, 13 suspects indicted for interference in U.S. election
(Various sources)
"Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election, did not attend the press briefing about the indictment, but the 37 pages of charges laid out an ambitious effort in late 2016 to push U.S. voters toward then-candidate Donald Trump and away from Democrat Hillary Clinton."
--
"Prosecutors said the group kept a list of real Americans who their employees had contacted using false personas and had asked to assist the effort. The list, which numbered over 100 people by late August 2016, included the U.S. citizen's contact information, a summary of each person's political views and the activities the Russians had asked them to undertake."
—
—
—



- USA vandekohus esitas 13 Vene kodanikule süüdistuse valimistesse sekkumises
(ERR)
"USA eriprokurör Robert Mueller tegi reedel teatavaks vandekohtu süüdistuse 13 Vene kodanikule ja kolmele firmale Ühendriikide presidendivalimistesse sekkumise eest.
Süüdistatavad osalesid alates 2014. aastast tänaseni vandenõus sekkuda USA poliitilisse ja valimisprotsessi, muuhulgas 2016. aasta presidendivalimistesse, teatas eriprokuröri büroo."




- Venemaa tähistab Punaarmee loomise 100. aastapäeva Ivangorodis
(ERR | Postimees)
"Venemaa tähistab 22. veebruaril Punaarmee loomise 100. aastapäeva Narva jõe ääres Ivangorodis tavapäratu sõjatehnika demonstratsiooniga. ... samuti Punaarmee loomisajast pärit vormiriietust ja relvastust. Linlastele demonstreeritakse tanke T-72, iseliikuvaid suurtükke ja soomustehnikat, samuti teevad käsivõitluse etteaste sõjakooli kursandid." 
--



- Russia to celebrate Red Army anniversary across the river from Narva
(ERR)
"On Feb. 22 Russia will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Red Army in the town of Ivangorod …"




_____________

Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel
_____________

- £14.2bn Finland to Estonia undersea mega-tunnel plans
(New Civil Engineer)
"The mega-project will run between the capitals Tallinn and Helsinki at a maximum depth of 250m for the most part through solid crystalline bedrock under the channel, emerging into Estonia through softer sediments of Ediacara and Blue Clay."
--
"To aid construction of the tunnel, FinEst Link said two, 400m x 300m artificial islands, located at places with water depths of 15m and 20m, would be built within the channel using the excavated material from the tunnel construction. These will provide ventilation, access and energy supplies to the tunnel below."

- Video Presentation
(YouTube)

- Report: Helsinki-Tallinn Transport Link Feasibility Study
(FinEst Link - PDF)
"The concept of an undersea railway tunnel, as studied in the FinEst Link project, con- nects Helsinki-Vantaa airport and Ülemiste airport in Tallinn where it connects to Rail Baltica and onwards to the Central and Eastern European railway network."

- Helsinki-Tallinn’s €20bn rail tunnel could be open by 2040
(Global Rail News)
"A number of consultancies have helped to produce the project’s feasibility study, which has just been published, but there’s one big problem: finance."

- Vision of subsea tunnel crossing Gulf of Finland triggers controversy
(Xinhua - China)

- Meren alle louhittavan rautatietunnelin hinta-arvio kaksinkertaistui 20 miljardiin euroon
(Helsingin Sanomat - 8. Feb.)






_____________

Thursday 15. 
February
_____________

- Arvamus: Russofoobid ja Estofoobid – kes nad sellised on?
Andrei Kuzitškin
(Postimees)
"Nii on ka omal ajal Eestis sündinud auhind «Aasta russofoob» vaikselt välja surnud, sest selle loojad ei ole kuidagi suutnud leida kedagi, kes süstemaatiliselt piiraks vene keele kasutamist."



- Commentary: In Munich, Clinging to Nostalgia
by Judy Dempsey
(Carnegie Europe)
"The West is ill-equipped to deal with the post-1945 order. … This is because digitization is changing everything - from politics and political representation to crucial questions concerning influence and stability, power, democratic governance, and transparency. … China is in the lead when it comes to recognizing how to channel and control digitization. It has erected firewalls and built sophisticated surveillance systems to spy on and control its own people.”
—
"The West, meanwhile, has been far too slow to use digitization to strengthen its democracies and to protect and project its values."



- NATO: German military short on tanks for NATO mission
(Deutsche Welle)
"The German military has secretly admitted that it can't fulfill its promises to NATO, according to documents leaked to Die Welt newspaper on Thursday. ...Specifically, the Bundeswehr's ninth tank brigade in Münster only has nine operational Leopard 2 tanks — even though it promised to have 44 ready for the VJTF — and only three of the promised 14 Marder armored infantry vehicles.”
--
"The paper also revealed the reason for this shortfall: a lack of spare parts and the high cost and time needed to maintain the vehicles. It added that it was also lacking night-vision equipment, automatic grenade launchers, winter clothing and body armor. The German air force is also struggling to cover its NATO duties …”
—
"Mark Galeotti, senior researcher and head of the Prague-based Center for European Security, said that "Germany's various military woes" were no secret to the rest of NATO. "For a long time, Germany has under-spent dramatically, and, let's be honest, wrapped itself in the mantle of its non-militarist foreign policy," he told DW, before adding that it had long been clear that the country hadn't been pulling its weight in the alliance."





_____________

Who Is Christopher Steele?
_____________

- From a 14. Feb. opinion piece entitled: "Christopher Steele is a hero"
(Washington Post)
"We know that he spent two decades as an officer in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, sometimes known as “MI6”), where he enjoyed the highest esteem from his own bosses as well as his counterparts in the U.S. intelligence community. We know that he spent long stints in Russia, where he built up his knowledge of the country and language and cultivated a wide-ranging network of contacts. At one point he ran the SIS Russia Desk."
--
"And we know that one of his SIS jobs included working in Afghanistan with British and U.S. special forces who were hunting down terrorists. This is a man who put his own life on the line for the sake of his country’s close alliance with the United States — a man who, in July and October 2016, correspondingly saw it as a matter of duty to approach old colleagues in the FBI when he realized he had stumbled onto a breathtaking threat to U.S. national security."
--
"Steele knows only too well what happens to people who get in Putin’s way. Yet even this awareness didn’t divert him from his path as he began to expose the Trump-Russia nexus. There was a reason why he and his family went into hiding when his name was first made public last year. … The risks are real.”
—
"This, too, suggests just how high the stakes are — so much higher than the world of Washington’s petty partisan crusades. This is the world of Kremlin intrigue, where mysterious deaths are a common tool of statecraft. This is the world that Christopher Steele had to plumb, at considerable personal risk to himself, to chart Trump’s illicit entanglements."




_____________

Wednesday 14. 
February
_____________


- Rail Baltic jälle sammu jagu lähemal
(Äripäev)
"Riigihalduse minister kehtestas Harjumaa, Raplamaa ja Pärnumaa maakonnaplaneeringud, mille eesmärk oli leida sobivaim asukoht kavandatava Rail Balticu raudtee trassi koridoridele."



- The Brussels to-do list
by Edward Lucas
(CEPA)
"Six tasks face NATO as it counts down to its summit in Brussels in July."



- E-Democracy in the European Union: Lessons from Estonia
(FPRI)
"In 2017, the Wired magazine called the country “the most advanced digital society in the world." … The European Union is following Estonia’s lead by now emphasizing e-solutions.”



- EU: How 'customs unions' work
(Politico-Europe)
"A customs union is a group of countries that have decided to make trade easier among them by dropping customs checks within the union and charging the same import duties on the group’s external borders. …"



- Report: Envisioning a Russia-NATO Conflict - Implications for Deterrence Stability
(European Leadership Network)
"The report reaches three basic conclusions:"
--
"Once a Russia-NATO conflict is underway, the prospects of controlling escalation and terminating a conflict according to any pre-planned scenario are disturbingly small."
--
"The probability of a conflict between Russia and NATO is currently low and it is avoidable."
--
"Yet, the risks of an inadvertent outbreak of conflict should be the main focus of attention, as it is the most likely path to a direct clash."




_____________

Tuesday 13. 
February
_____________


✔︎ Estonian Spies Understand the Russian Threat
by Leonid Bershidsky
(Bloomberg)
"Finally, a comprehensive look at Putin's ambitions backed by real expertise."



- Venemaa uus logo peidab propagandasõnumit
(Propastop)

- Russia’s new logo has a hidden propaganda message
(Propastop)



- Uus kaitseväe arengukava näeb ette rohkem ajateenijaid ja tehnikat
(ERR)
—



- Tartu mänguasjamuuseumis avatakse "Mängime sajaga!”
(ERR)


DIGAR lauamäng foto:



- NATO confirms half of allies expected to meet spending goal
(The Hill)
"Clearly NATO has reversed what was a downward trend, and so now we're well into the second year, I believe, where the nations are spending more on defense.”

- Briti major Eestis: Vene oht ei rõhu meid iga päev, näitame NATO lähenemist muutunud poliitilisele olukorrale
(Delfi)



- British Troops battle freezing conditions and allies in Estonia war games
(Various sources)
—
—

- Welsh soldiers suffer rugby woe in Estonian forest
(Daily Mail - Uk)
"Soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, currently deployed in the Baltic state as part of Nato’s Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP), caught up on the game huddled around a laptop balanced on ration pack boxes. Amongst an array of Warrior armoured vehicles, support trucks and Challenger 2 tanks, and despite temperatures dropping to -6C, keen rugby supporters followed the twist and turns of the game."




_____________

Monday 12. 
February
_____________


- Eesti vahetas Vene salakuulaja Raivo Susi vastu
(ERR)
"Eesti Vabariik ja Venemaa Föderatsioon vahetasid laupäeval Eestis salakuulamise eest süüdi mõistetud Venemaa kodaniku Artjom Zintšenko Venemaal spionaažis süüdi mõistetud Eesti kodaniku Raivo Susi vastu. Vahetus toimus Koidula piiripunktis kella kümne ajal."

- Russia and Estonia exchange president-pardoned spies
(BNN | Euronews)
"Estonian aviation technology businessman Raivo Susi was swapped for Russian national Artyom Zinchenko at the Koidula border post in south-eastern Estonia."
—



- Soome osaleb tänavu 14 NATO õppusel
(ERR)



- Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue to be lit up in Estonian national colours
(Estonian World)



- Latvia Focuses on Improving Societal Resilience and Increasing Size of National Guard
(Jamestown)
"In late January 2018, the Ministry of Defense of Latvia reported plans to expand the National Guard (Zemessardzes) force to 12,000 by 2027."







_____________

Russia
“Trust No One"
_____________


- The Trojan Horse of Russian Gas
(Foreign Policy)
"Energy resources aren’t just a commodity – they’re a vehicle for Russia’s political ambitions."



- Putin’s Trolls Are Targeting Trump’s GOP Critics - Especially John McCain
(Mother Jones)
[Senator McCain has been a very good friend to the Baltics and has visited Estonia many, many times.]
--
"While the vast majority of the attacks from the 600 Twitter accounts tracked in real time by the Hamilton 68 dashboard are aimed at Democrats, the trolls also turn their sights on Republicans who sometimes stand up to Trump. Repeat targets have included Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. National security adviser H.R. McMaster has also been a target. But no Republican has faced more persistent wrath from the Russian-linked accounts than McCain, says Bret Schafer, an analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a group of national-security experts behind the dashboard working to expose Kremlin meddling in US politics. And those attacks on McCain have intensified in recent weeks."

- Hamilton 68 Dashboard
"Activity from 600 monitored Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence operations."



- Palgasõdurid, kellest Kreml midagi ei tea, on ravil Moskvas ja Peterburis
(ERR | Bloomberg)
"Kaks palgasõduritega seotud inimest on meediale kinnitanud, et Deir Ezzori provintsi õhurünnakus haavata saanud palgasõdurid on toodud Moskvas ja Peterburis asuvatesse haiglatesse. Hukkunute arv jätkab kasvamist, sest mõnede meeste vigastused on rasked ja on olnud neid, kes on surnud ka juba Venemaal haiglas …"

"Even as the Kremlin denies any official link to them, scores of Russian mercenaries wounded in U.S. strikes in Syria are being treated at Defense Ministry hospitals."



- The Real Syrian Story is Now Very Much in Moscow
(Window on Eurasia)

- Russian Mercenary Debacle in Syria is Putin’s ‘Bay of Pigs’
(Window on Eurasia)



- The Curious Case of the Television Star Running Against Vladimir Putin
By Masha Gessen
(The New Yorker)
“No one gets on the Presidential ballot without Putin’s permission."



- In Russia, a grass-roots bid to expose Stalin's ‘Great Terror’
by Fred Weir
(Christian Science Monitor)
"Just about every former Soviet city has a place outside town, usually a forest or piece of scrubland, where Joseph Stalin’s secret police brought thousands of executed “enemies of the people” and dumped them into mass graves, especially during the nightmare years of the Great Terror of 1936-38. …”



- The Perils of Change: Russians’ Mixed Attitudes Toward Reform
(Carnegie Moscow Center)
"Many in Russia often view the absence of change as a positive, not a negative, phenomenon. Neither the country’s core ruling elite nor many ordinary Russians see a clear need for modernization, which they perceive to be a liberal project. … In the early 2000s, he satisfied the population’s demand for a return to order and stability. In 2014, with his forced takeover of Crimea, he fed their yearning for a restoration of Russia’s great-power status. These changes have been designed to preserve the existing political system, not to reform it."



- The Surprising Success of Putinomics
(Foreign Affairs)
"Behind Putin's Formula for Holding Onto Power"



- Intelligence officials say Russia intent on disrupting U.S. elections
(Politico-Europe | New York Times)
—



- A Survivalist Underground Emerges in Russia
(Window on Eurasia)
"Survivalists, who actively prepare for wars and other disasters often by withdrawing from the broader society, emerged first in the United States in the 1970s. They had no counterparts in the Soviet Union; but now ever more Russians are adopting survivalist strategies and can even be said to form a loosely organized underground movement.”
—
"Russian survivalists, Roman Kuzminov, one of their number says, are very different than their American counterparts in that Americans build bunkers but the Russians rely on the country’s enormous vacant spaces and thus plan to live more nomadically in rural areas in the event of a war, accident or other disaster."



- U.S. Secretly Negotiated With Russians To Buy Stolen Nsa Documents
 by James Risen
(The Intercept)

- Podcast: Inside The Nsa’s Secret Channel To Russia
(The Intercept)


________
____
_




Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)