✔︎ The Internal Security Service published its annual review of 2017
✔︎ Kaitsepolitseiameti Aastaraamat 2017 a.
✔︎ An internet bot looks for news related to Estonia in the Russian media
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- On-line version:
- 2014-2018 Archive:
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Friday 13. April
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- Estonia offers free genetic testing in nationwide experiment
(Washington Post)
"Estonia has started offering residents free genetic profiling in a nationwide experiment aimed at minimizing risks for typical diseases and encouraging a healthier lifestyle through personalized data reports. … Lili Milani, a researcher with the Estonian Genome Center at the University of Tartu, said Thursday the scheme kicked off in March and will initially cover some 100,000 volunteers …”
- Desynchronization of Baltic grid crucial due to geopolitical aspects
(ERR)
"Decoupling from the Russian power system and integrating into the Continental European power system is vital for national security," Estonian transmission system operator Elering CEO Taavi Veskimägi said in a press release on Friday. "This process is as important to the Baltic countries as was our accession to NATO and the EU. The synchronization process reflects our deep cooperation with other societies that share our values and way of life."
- Russia recruiting young spies from Estonia: report
(Radio Poland)
“… by offering them free excursions and promoting the notion that agents are heroes."
- Rail Baltica: Brexit casting doubt over €5.8bn Estonia-Poland train line
(Euronews)
"Brussels has already given €765 million to the Rail Baltica scheme … But the CEO of the €5.8 billion project has admitted there are no guarantees over getting future European funding. … Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — on their own just cannot afford something like this."
- Maria-Ann Rohemäe teist aastat maailma mõjukaimate otsuste sõlmpunktis
(Delfi)
- No longer ‘the weak gender’ in Lithuania
(Politico-Europe)
"At the site of basic training for Lithuania’s National Defense Volunteer Forces, a unit commander barks an odd order: “Soldiers with long hair to the front!” And with that, a third of the group changes position. Female faces are now front and center."
https://www.politico.eu/interactive/in-pictures-no-longer-the-weak-gender-in-lithuania/
https://www.politico.eu/interactive/in-pictures-no-longer-the-weak-gender-in-lithuania/
- Russian Navy Helicopter Crashes in Baltic Sea off Kaliningrad, Killing 2 two test pilots
(The Moscow Times)
- Vene relvajõudude helikopter Ka-29 kukkus Läänemerre
(ERR)
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Thursday 12. April
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✔︎ Kaitsepolitseiameti Aastaraamat 2017 a.
(KAPO)
- Välisriigid korraldasid mitu Eesti-vastast küberoperatsiooni
(Postimees)
- Russia exploiting war memorials to stir up conflicts abroad
(ERR)
- Russia's divisive policy efforts increasingly targeting youngsters
(ERR)
- KAPO: Venekeelseid noori püütakse Eesti vastu ässitada
(Reporter)
- Estonia Revealed It Has Captured Four Russian Spies In The Last Year
(BuzzFeed)
- Kaitsepolitsei tabas veel ühe Vene sõjaväeluure kaastöötaja
(Postimees)
- Lõuna-Eesti linnade keskväljakud saavad täiesti uue ilme
(Lõunaeestlane - Nov. 2017)
"Nii Võru, Valga, Põlva kui Tõrva kesklinnad muutuvad tundmatuseni. Näiteks Võrus võetakse maha kiriku pargi puud ja asemele tuleb suur lage väljak. Võidutöö kandis nime Urban Gadget (linnavidin), selle autor on Villem Tomiste, kelle järgi on võimalik tühjal platsil eri vidinaid ümber paigutada."
- Võru keskväljaku rajamist alustati pargipuude langetamisest
(Lõuna Leht)
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- Photos: Restoration of Võru’s Central Square Underway
(Lõuna Leht)
- Mullu raiuti Eestis 11 miljonit tihumeetrit metsa
(ERR)
"Eestis oli mullune raiemaht 11 miljonit tihumeetrit metsa, aasta varem aga 10,7 miljonit tihumeetrit, selgus keskkonnaagentuuri infopäeval, kus tutvustati Eesti metsavaru ja raiemahu värskeid andmeid."
- Metsa kasvab hoogsamalt, kui raiutakse
(Postimees)
"Mullu raiuti 11 miljonit, kuid juurde kasvas 16,1 miljonit tihumeetrit puitu."
- Varjupaigataotleja Venemaalt mõisteti süüdi luuramises FSB kasuks
(Delfi)
- The Foundation, Evolution, and Future of the Belarusian Regime
(Carnegie Moscow Center)
"Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has built a highly consolidated, adaptive authoritarian regime. Examining how the Belarusian political system is structured and how its relationships with its citizens, Russia, and the West have evolved may help shed light on possible paths that Minsk could take as Lukashenko ages and economic challenges continue to mount."
or:
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Wednesday 11. April
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- Professor Mander peab Emajõe suurimaks ohuks fosforit
(ERR)
"Ehkki Tartumaale kavandatav tselluloositehas ei tuleks linna territooriumile ega vahetult Emajõe äärde, on tartlased, sh mitmed teadlased uuringute läbiviimise vastu. Tartu Ülikooli professor Ülo Mander peab suurimaks ohuks jõe tervisele fosforit, mis selle joomis- ja ujumiskõlbmatuks muudaks."
- Moscow Plans New Arctic Port to Bypass Baltics and Ukraine
by Paul Goble
(Jamestown Org. - 3. April)
"If these Russian plans prove successful, they will deprive Ukraine and the Baltics of the transit fees they have long depended upon. Indeed, judging from the comments of Moscow officials, the Russian government is more interested in using such new routes to apply political leverage on at least some of these countries than it is in ensuring Russia’s economic interests.”
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“... the Russian declaration signals just how important it is for the Baltic States to develop north-south rail links from Finland in the north to Poland and Europe in the south, to reduce to a minimum their dependence on Russian transit fees, and to develop their own economic capacity. The European Union and the West more generally can help in all three of these areas. If they do, Moscow’s latest threats about “bypassing” the Baltics and Ukraine will backfire, in fact helping these countries achieve genuine independence from Moscow and reducing still further Russian influence over them."
- Is Germany Souring on Russia’s Nord Stream?
(Foreign Policy)
"German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday staked out what appears to be a tougher stance on a huge Russian energy project that’s tearing Europe apart, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline across the Baltic Sea."
- Five Truly Terrifying Messages of Russian Propaganda This Week
(Window on Eurasia)
- Europe’s AI delusion
(Politico-Europe)
"Brussels is failing to grasp threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence. … the great conflict of our time is about who can control the next wave of technological development: the widespread application of artificial intelligence in the economic and military spheres. That’s why it’s so worrying that while China has been quick to react to the threats and opportunities of AI, the European Union — if the draft of its AI strategy is anything to go by — has yet to recognize the technology’s epochal significance."
- Europe divided over robot ‘personhood’
(Politico)
"In letter to Commission, 156 experts from 14 countries, including computer scientists, law professors and CEOs, warn that granting robots legal personhood would be “inappropriate” from a “legal and ethical perspective.”
- We’re in an ‘Arms Race’ With Russia, but AI Will Save Us: Zuckerberg
(Foreign Policy)
“… Zuckerberg said artificial intelligence, or AI, represents the best solution to misinformation on Facebook but won’t be ready for another five to 10 years."
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Tuesday 10. April
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- The Threat Within NATO
(The Atlantic)
"From Budapest to Warsaw to Ankara, a new generation of strongmen within the alliance seeks to govern in a manner closer to that of Putin than to that of the democratic reformers of the immediate post-Cold War epoch. Which raises the question of whether an alliance, designed to contain the Soviet Union and ostensibly organized around democratic ideals, can endure attacks on the rule of law by a growing subset of its members.”
- Kaljulaid met with French president Emmanuel Macron
(ERR)
“… joined by her Latvian and Lithuanian colleagues Raimonds Vējonis and Dalia Grybauskaitė."
- Identity crisis in Lithuania’s bohemian republic
(Politico-Europe)
"Užupis was founded 20 years ago, when a group of artists moved to a high-crime neighborhood in Vilnius, declared independence and set about creating a utopian society."
- PPA: loodame, et välismaalased tasuvad Eestis saadud liiklustrahvid vabatahtlikult, trahviotsuseid teise riiki me ei saada
(Delfi)
"Soome ajaleht Italehti kirjutas eile, et välismaalased võivad Eesti teedel kartmatult kiirust ületada, sest keegi neilt trahve välja ei nõua. PPA kiidab, et iga teine välismaalane tasub vabatahtlikult trahvi, ent vabatahtlikkusel asi põhinebki - keegi neilt otse trahve välja ei nõua."
- Russia’s anxious northern neighbors toughen up
(Politico-Europe)
"With relations between the West and Moscow at a post-Cold War low point, Russia’s closest EU neighbors are turning to tougher military and financial measures to send a message to Vladimir Putin. At a White House meeting last week, the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania asked Donald Trump to do more to deter Russia by bolstering U.S. forces in Eastern Europe.”
- Propamon otsib Venemaa meediakanalitest Eestiga seotud uudiseid
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Hungary
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- A Democracy Disappears
by Andrew Sullivan
(New York Magazine)
"I mean how you turn a prosperous 21st-century liberal democracy into an illiberal one, and then into a de facto dictatorship. There are no tanks; no mass arrests of opposition politicians; no coups; no direct assaults on the rule of law; and no new totalizing ideology. There is, in fact, no moment where you can definitively say that the liberal democracy has ceased to exist. But in Hungary, an upstanding member of the European Union, liberal democracy is now dead, pining for the fjords, nailed to the perch, an unmistakably ex-democracy."
- The Big Winners in Hungary’s Elections? Fear, Hate, and Putin
by Anna Nemtsova
(The Daily Beast)
“In Russia the Kremlin celebrated Orban’s victory as its own. Senator of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev said on Monday that Orban’s victory showed that Hungary managed to defend its national interests in the European Union and NATO. “This [EU/NATO] line, if we slightly simplify it, means the following: We are in solidarity with our partners for as long as they do not contradict with our interests.”
- European Parliament report calls for sanctions procedure against Hungary
(Politico-Europe)
“… systemic threat to democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights."
- Pro-migrant groups targeted after Hungary's election
(Christian Science Monitor)
"A day after it won an overwhelming election victory on an anti-migration platform, the right-wing populist party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it would limit the ability of civic groups to help migrants and refugees."
- What Viktor Orbán's Third Win Means for Europe
(Spiegel)
- For European right, Hungary is a family affair
(Politico-Europe)
- Opinion: EU looks away as Orban stays on in Hungary
(Deutsche Welle)
- Viktor Orbán’s Survival Games
(Carnegie Europe)
- Central Europe: How Illiberal Leaders Attack Civil Society
(Foreign Policy)
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Russia
“Trust No One"
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- Under Russian Terror, All Exiles Are Fearful and All Deaths Are Suspicious
by Masha Gessen
(The New Yorker)
"Hundreds of the Kremlin’s active opponents have left Russia in the last six years, moving the intellectual center of the opposition abroad, much as it happened in the seventies. In London, New York, and the Baltic republics, they continue to meet, organize, and plan a post-Putin future; in fact, the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who moved to New York five years ago, chaired this week the Forum for a Free Russia, the fifth such gathering he has organized, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Every person at the gathering, and scores of other Russian activists who are not there, have watched the unfolding Skripal investigation and wondered, at least occasionally, if they might not be next."
- Russia facing 100 years of isolation, says Putin aide Vladislav Surkov
(The Times-Uk)
“… the consequences of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 were only now becoming apparent. “The event is the conclusion of Russia’s epic journey towards the West, the ending of numerous fruitless attempts to become part of western civilisation, to inter-marry with the ‘good family’ of European nations,” he wrote in a sweeping essay."
- Editorial: Blocking Telegram is a blow to Russia's future
(Meduza)
"Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has sanctioned the government’s decision to block Telegram, one of the world’s most recognizable technology companies with roots in Russia. If this happened abroad, it would be like the United States banning Facebook or Amazon, the European Union banning Skype or Spotify …"
- Syria: Pentagon Worried About Accidentally Killing Russian Troops
(Task & Purpose)
"Clearly neither Moscow nor Washington wants a direct conflict in Syria. The U.S. has about 2,000 troops deployed chiefly in the country’s north, where they support Kurdish troops fighting Islamic State. The Pentagon uses a so-called deconfliction hotline from its air base in Qatar to make sure U.S. and Russian aircraft avoid each other in Syrian airspace.”
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"The Russian military contingent in Syria is slightly smaller — estimated at fewer than 2,000 troops and fewer than 100 warplanes. So the U.S. and its allies could carry out targeted reprisals on Syrian military targets with limited risk of causing Russian casualties, especially if the U.S. warns Moscow ahead of the strikes, U.S. officials say."
- Return of Soviet-Style Conformity to Russia ‘Shocking’
(Window on Eurasia)
“… it has become more difficult to find information or to speak with sources. As in Soviet times, people are suspicious of journalists and the number of sources is shrinking. … But it is shocking how easily Soviet-style conformity has returned. People who think and understand are playing in some kind of a theater” in which they know how they are expected to speak and act even though “internally, they have remained the same.”
- Russians disagree overwhelmingly with the Kremlin: oligarchs still exist
(Meduza)
- Russians Hate Both Oligarchs and America
- How Putin’s Folly Could Lead to a Middle East War
(Politico)
"Putin is now in the unlikely position of trying to contain the outbreak of what could be the ugliest Middle East war of the 21st century between Iran and Israel."
- Opinion: Putin Is Overmatched and Frightened
(Real Clear World)
"Moscow is now hesitant, taken by surprise at Western vehemence. They are expelling Western diplomats and closing the St. Petersburg consulate. But the fact remains that one country, Russia, is a pariah, confronted by nearly 30. The tables are turning on Moscow."
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