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22 June, 2018



✔︎ "Vladimir Putin has achieved a major goal with plans for a summit between him and US President Donald Trump in Europe sometime in July now going forward. That meeting effectively ends the international isolation the Kremlin leader has experienced since he invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.” 
- Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia


✔︎ Gaudeamusele on kogunenud tuhanded tudengid Balti riikidest | Kuus Euroopa presidenti tervitas raekoja platsil tartlasi 
- ERR


✔︎ Arvamus: üks säuts võib hävitada NATO üliolulise artikli 5 
- Postimees


✔︎ "The Baltic 'Big Sea’ strategy” by Alexander Stubb and Toomas Hendrik Ilves 
- EU Observer


✔︎ Kaliningrad: Russia Upgrades Nuclear Weapons Storage Site 
- Federation of American Scientists




- 2014-2018 Archive:



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Friday 22. June
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- Tartut külastas täna seitse presidenti
(Postimees | Delfi | ERR)
"Täna õhtuks koguneb Emajõelinna seitse presidenti: lisaks Kersti Kaljulaidile Gruusia president Giorgi Margvelašvili, Islandi president Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, Leedu president Dalia Grybauskaitė, Läti president Raimonds Vējonis, Poola president Andrzej Duda ja Soome president Sauli Niinistö. Päevaselt sündmuselt puudus neist Leedu president Dalia Grybauskaitė, kes kehva ilma tõttu Tartusse ei jõua."
—
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- Seven European presidents in Tartu for Estonia 100
(ERR)

- Gaudeamusele on kogunenud tuhanded tudengid Balti riikidest
(ERR)



- EU's retaliatory tariffs on US products come into effect
(Deutsche Welle | New York Times)
"The EU said it has no choice after failing to secure an exemption to US President Donald Trump's tariffs, but the response has raised fears of a global trade war. … The tariffs target $3.4 billion (€2.9 billion) worth of American imports."
—

- How Do You Know When It's Officially a Trade War?
(The Atlantic)



- Hea uudis lõkke tegijatele: homsest jääb suure tuleohuga aeg kehtima vaid Jõgeva ja Ida-Virumaal
(Postimees)



- Estonia Says Russian Plane Again Violates Airspace
(RFERL)







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The Trans-Atlantic Alliance
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- Trump Insists on a Putin Summit
by Susan B. Glasser
(The New Yorker)
"Fresh off his showy Singapore summit with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, President Trump is pushing his team to arrange another dramatic one-on-one meeting, this time with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as soon as this summer. Negotiations with the Kremlin have been under way for weeks.”
- Bolton to visit Moscow to discuss possible Trump-Putin summit
(The Hill | Politico | Reuters)
"The meeting could take place either before the July 11 NATO summit in Brussels or after Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom on July 13.”
--
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- Putin-Trump Meeting Won’t Result in Dramatic Changes on Ukraine
(Window on Eurasia)
"Vladimir Putin has achieved a major goal with plans for a summit between him and US President Donald Trump in Europe sometime in July now going forward. That meeting effectively ends the international isolation the Kremlin leader has experienced since he invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.”



- What Putin wants from his summit with Trump
Commentary by Edward Lucas
(The Times)
"Esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich! Allow us to refresh your memory on the best approach to take at your meeting with President Trump, in light of our plan to neuter the Nato alliance. …"




- Arvamus: üks säuts võib hävitada NATO üliolulise artikli 5
(Postimees)
"Härra Trumpi lähenemine õhutab Euroopas antiamerikanismi. Atlandi alliansi avalik toetamine on muutunud palju raskemaks. Saksamaal peab 58 protsenti avalikkusest Venemaad usaldusväärseks partneriks ning 43 protsenti arvab sellesse kategooriasse Hiina. Ühendriike usaldab vaid 14 protsenti. Isegi kui härra Trumpi valitsus ajab poliitiliselt õiget asja, nagu Ukraina toetamine püüetes takistada uut Vene gaasijuhet (mis ekspordib süsivesinike asemel mõjuvõimu), on reaktsioon kantud usaldamatusest."



- Opinion: Dear Europe, if you want to stop Trump, sanction his companies
(The Guardian-UK)
"Donald Trump has opened the largest rift between the US and its European allies since George W Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. … Counter-tariffs, clawback sanctions and other economic tools that Europe is considering are hardly sustainable, unlikely to force Trump to back down and will damage both the European Union and US economies.”
—
"Sanctions targeting his own companies and wealth will sting in a way that he cannot ignore."



- Opinion: Enemy in the White House
(Spiegel-Germany)
"Trump's latest lies are an open attack on the German government and the European Union. This U.S. president was never a partner. He is an aggressive opponent and should be treated as such. ..."



- Opinion: To Hell in a Handbasket
(The Helsinki Times)
"The era of Pax Americana, which brought seven decades of relative global peace and prosperity, has entered a new and more dangerous stage of decline thanks to Trump’s embrace of narrow-minded nationalism. The result will be a much more favorable environment for autocrats at the expense of liberal democracy and human rights.”
—
"Meanwhile, respect for democratic governance and human rights continues to fall even in states once considered safe, such as Hungary and Poland. Few, if any, democratic allies are able to fill the growing vacuum left by the U.S. retreat, leaving the field of geopolitical competition open to the maneuvers of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping."http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/columns/columns/viewpoint/15624-to-hell-in-a-handbasket.html



- Europe and North America need to stay united – now more than ever
by Jens Stoltenberg
(The Guardian)
“I believe that in the North Atlantic treaty lies the best, if not the only hope of peace.” Not my words, but the words of Lord Hastings Ismay, former military assistant to Winston Churchill and the very first secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). In the same 1952 broadcast, Ismay predicted “that there will be persistent efforts to drive a wedge between us” and “that we shall have our little quarrels”. Right now, those words seem remarkably prescient.”


- Stoltenberg: transatlantiline side peab vastu
(ERR)
"Ja, jah, me näeme USA ja teiste liitlaste erimeelsusi seoses kaubanduse, kliima ja Iraani tuumaleppega. See, et transatlantiline side säilib igavesti, ei ole kivisse raiutud, kuid ma usun, et me säilitame selle."

- NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg wants fewer tensions, improved relationship with Russia
(Deutsche Welle)




- Mother of all EU summits
(Politico-Europe)
"The June summit now stands to pose the toughest test yet of Council President Donald Tusk’s pledge to get the EU’s 28 to take control of the hardest issues and make difficult decisions that they can defend to their voters. With each country potentially wielding a veto on most issues, it is far easier said then done."



- Macron and Merkel Will Struggle to Show Europe a United Front
(Carnegie Europe)
"Next week’s EU summit should be a chance for the bloc’s leaders to set out an ambitious strategic agenda. At stake is the future of the eurozone, the shape of Europe’s defence and security ambitions and a decades-long failure to agree a refugee and asylum policy. But the meetings are not just about the EU responding to its own crises. They are also about the bloc’s two most important leaders confronting the erosion of the post-1945 transatlantic pact that has held the west together.”



- Opinion: Trump is trying to tear NATO apart
(Washington Post)
“… there are two figures about whom Mr. Trump has been fairly consistent: President Vladi­mir Putin of Russia is the recipient of Mr. Trump’s warmth and understanding, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is the target of his criticism and contempt. No tendency of Mr. Trump better demonstrates his underlying ideology and intentions than his disparate treatment of Moscow’s reactionary despot and Berlin’s liberal democrat."




- Where Is Europe? The Other World Powers No Longer Even Ask
(Les Echos via Worldcrunch)
"It’s as if the center of the world had shifted from the West to the East, and as if Europe was nothing more than a peripheral peninsula of Asia, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. … Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has entered a new phase. The American president can meet a North Korean dictator at a summit for the first time since the Panmunjeom armistice of 1953, or call for Russia's return in a new G8. Or he can still agree on international trade with Beijing behind the backs of Europeans. China can advance its pawns in Africa. And always, Europe is nowhere to be seen.”



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Thursday 21. June
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- The Bronze Soldier Explains Why Estonia Prepares For A Russian Cyberattack
(Forbes)
"Estonia is calmer than the media leads you to believe. … Few discuss Russian-Estonian relations. Most just want to hang out in saunas, sing and go canoeing."




- The Baltic 'Big Sea’ strategy
by Alexander Stubb and Toomas Hendrik Ilves
(EU Observer)
“… the Baltic Sea had become almost entirely a 'European lake’."



- Eesti sõlmib lepingu 12 Lõuna-Korea K9 Thunder liikursuurtüki ostuks
(ERR)
"Liikursuurtükkide ost on üks selle kümnendi olulisemaid kaitsealaseid hankeid ning samme kaitseväe soomusmanöövervõime üles ehitamisel."

- Defence Forces to make significant purchase of South Korean artillery
(ERR)
"The procurement represents one of the most significant investments by the EDF in recent years. The K9 Thunder SP gun carries a 155mm howitzer with a maximum range of 40km. … The 12 SP guns are likely to be in operation in 2021, it is reported."



- Estonians plan another tax protest
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"Estonia has seen its alcohol tax income to shrink €80m below the expected, largely due to cross-border trade, or Estonians coming to Latvia to stock up on booze, which is much cheaper here. As a result, Estonia has backtracked, halving the excise tax hike planned for this year. Estonian alcohol sellers are nevertheless rapidly expanding on the Latvian border. It should be noted that while excised products are cheaper in Latvia, Estonia has higher wages and benefits for families, as well as significantly lower labor taxes paid by employees."



- The World is Beating a Path to Putin’s Door, and Not Just Because of Soccer
by Anna Nemtsova
(The Daily Beast)
"On Tuesday the entire Russian leadership—President Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko and State Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin—arrived to meet with Lukashenko in Minsk. The politicians discussed future Russia-Belarus business deals, including the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe through Belarus."



- EU leaders consider centers outside bloc to process refugees
(Politico-Europe)
"European Council President Donald Tusk has proposed that EU leaders create “regional disembarkation platforms” outside the European Union, where officials could quickly differentiate between refugees in need of protection and economic migrants who would potentially face return to their countries of origin."
--
"The proposal is an effort to break the acute political crisis over migration and asylum that has bedeviled EU leaders since 2015 — and even threatened in recent days to topple the German government — even as the numbers of arrivals have plummeted since the peak of the crisis."

"The European Union won’t create a “Guantanamo Bay for migrants.”

- Council of the European Union draft conclusions



- Obama to visit Helsinki for the Nordic Business Forum
(Yle)
"Helsinki will host Barack Obama for a keynote speech at the Nordic Business Forum in September. Event organisers say they're expecting some 7,500 people to attend along with the 44th president of the United States. …  Tickets to the event cost upwards of 900 euros …"





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Wednesday 20. June
_____________


- Soome ja Rootsi eksperdid soovitavad NATOga liituda
(Postimees)
"Venemaa heidutamise parimat viisi näevad allakirjutanud Rootsi ja Soome NATOga liitumises. Nad ei ole nõus, et liikmesus NATOs muudaks tõsiselt julgeolekuolukorda ning tekitaks pingeid Põhja-Euroopas. "Taolised väited ei arvesta olemasolevat tegelikkust. Vene retoorika rajaneb soovil maksimeerida oma sõjaline tegutsemisvabadus kõigis võimalikes olukordades. Et Rootsi ja Soome teevad NATO ja lääneriikidega selletagi innukat koostööd, Euroopa Liit on aga hakanud kaitsepoliitikat edendama, ei tekita mitteühinemispoliitika Moskva silmis usaldust. Venemaa peab Soomet ja Rootsit Lääne osaks ja tüli korral lähtub tõenäoliselt just sellest."


- NATO’s fractious politics mask its military strength
(Capx)

- Russian hybrid warfare can still bring surprises in the future
(Postimees)



- Opinion: When investigators threatened his power, he declared himself dictator
(Washington Post)
"Mussolini undermined the institutions and culture of Italian democracy persistently and methodically. He denounced any negative press coverage of him as “abusive” and “criminal,” and demanded that the offending reporters and editors be fired. In Parliament he made offhand remarks about abolishing the constitution, creating a secret police and becoming a dictator. He dismissed officials who were insufficiently servile. He bullied Parliament into passage of an electoral law that guaranteed his coalition’s victory in the 1924 elections. And he stayed silent when Fascists beat up or killed opposition politicians."



- Eestis on Ida-Euroopa ühed kõrgemad hinnad
(Postimees)
"Euroopa Liidu keskmisest moodustab Eesti hindade tase 79 protsenti, jäädes umbes samasse klassi valdavalt Lõuna-Euroopa riikidega, nagu Hispaania, Kreeka ja Portugal. Samal ajal on Eesti tarbimisel Euroopas vaesuselt kuues riik."



- Mõned varjupaigataotlejad kasutavad EL-i jõudmiseks Venemaal toimuvat MM-i
(ERR)
"Eelmisel nädalal Venemaal alanud jalgpalli maailmameistrivõistlused on toonud kaasa kummalise migratsiooniteemalise olukorra, millest annavad märku ka Soome võimudele esitatud varjupaigataotlused."

- Erikoinen ilmiö itärajalla: Kisaturistit hakevat turvapaikkaa Suomesta Venäjän MM-kisojen varjolla
(Yle)
"Laittomia ylityksiä odotettiin vasta kisojen lopussa."


- Asylum Seekers Enter Finland From Russia Using World Cup IDs
(The Moscow Times)



- Nearly a thousand Tabivere residents in pulp mill protest
(ERR)
"Criticisms of the proposed mill have been heard ever since the plans were announced at the beginning of the year … Based on preliminary analyses, Tartu and Viljandi counties were selected as the most viable locations for the mill and the national planning initiative started in May along those lines. The announcement in turn met with strong local opposition, including street protests of thousands of people in Tartu in May, and opinions from political, academic and civic society."







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Tuesday 19. June
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- Eesti rabeles viie vaesema riigi seast välja 
(Ärileht)
"SKP suhtarvult tõusis Eesti eelmisel aastal 77 protsendiga ELi keskmisest samale tasemele Portugali ja Slovakkiaga. Tahapoole meist jäid Poola, Kreeka, Ungari, Läti, Rumeenia, Horvaatia ja Bulgaaria."



- EU Commissioner: Estonia Must Not Leave its Elderly Behind
(Emerging Europe)
"According to Eurostat, Estonia has one of the highest rates of older persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union. This situation is also prominent among older persons belonging to the Russian-speaking minority, and represents a continuation of economic disparities that exist between ethnic communities in Estonia. “The Estonian authorities should accept Article 23 of the Revised European Social Charter and ensure that social protection floors and pensions are sufficient to enable all older people to live in dignity,” said Mrs Mijatović. She also called on the authorities to organise public campaigns to combat ageism and prejudices against older persons, in order to counter existing discrimination and foster inter-generational solidarity."



- Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant Proceeding Full Speed Ahead
(Jamestown Foundation)
"The first unit is expected to be commissioned in December 2019, and the second in July 2020. In late March, the former was reportedly 75–78 percent and the latter 50 percent complete … Overall, the most active opponent of the Ostrovets NPP is the government of Lithuania ...”



- Underwater bombs pose toxic risk in Gulf of Finland
(Yle)
"In early June a minesweeping operation in the Gulf extracted some 90 explosives from the bottom of the sea, out of the path of the international Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. A joint Baltic effort, Open Spirit, lifted yet more mines before that in May off the coast of Estonia."



- Using A Drone In Europe
(RFERL)






- ‘Without Soviet Troops, You’d be a Lampshade,’ Russian Embassy Tells Russian Opposition Figure in Estonia
(Window On Eurasia)
"The degradation of Russian official discourse takes many forms, but one of the clearest is offered today by what the Russian embassy in Tallinn told Yevgeny Kristafovich, a Russian opposition figure there who Moscow has banned from visiting Russia because of his supposed Russophobia.”
—
“… it is an example of the increasing nastiness of Russian diplomats who until recently had generally behaved better than the hosts of Moscow television talk shows but who now appear to have fallen in line with the very worst of them by deploying the kind of “argument” the Russian embassy in Tallinn has used in this case."

- Vene saatkond Krištafovitšile: Nõukogude vägedeta oleks teid seebiks tehtud
(ERR)





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Monday 18. June
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- Estonians more optimistic than average on EU future
(Baltic Times)

- Finland Is the Happiest Country in the World, and Finns Aren't Happy about It
(Scientific American - 11. May)

- Eesti teadlaste loodud materjal peidab sõdurid kaasaegse tehnikaime eest
(ERR)
"Laialt levinud kaitseväe maskeerumisvahendid on muutumas tehnika arengu tõttu iganenuks. Eesti teadlased esitlevad nüüd uut materjali, mis suudab edukalt ära petta isegi inimsilmale nähtamatut valgust registreerivaid kaameraid. Materjali vastu tunneb huvi ka NATO."



- Krabil maeti ümber kaks Vabadussõjas langenut
(Lõuna Leht)
"16. juunil maeti Võrumaal Krabi külas tundmatu sõduri memoriaali kaks 1919. aasta kevadtalvel Vabadussõjas hukkunud Eesti sõdurit."



- European Union extends Crimea sanctions for a year
(Deutsche Welle)
"The EU said it remains "firmly committed to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," reiterating that "it does not recognize and continues to condemn this violation of international law."



- Latvia spends 11 million euros on Finnish military vehicles
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"The acquisition of off-road vehicles suitable for Latvian terrain with a wide range of operational applications is a logical step towards strengthening the tactical mobility of the units of the National Armed Forces."





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Russia
“Trust No One"
_____________


- Kaliningrad: Russia Upgrades Nuclear Weapons Storage Site
(Federation of American Scientists)
"During the past two years, the Russian military has carried out a major renovation of what appears to be an active nuclear weapons storage site in the Kaliningrad region, about 50 kilometers from the Polish border."
--
"A Digital Globe satellite image purchased via Getty Images, and several other satellite images viewable on TerraServer, show one of three underground bunkers near Kulikovo being excavated in 2016, apparently renovated, and getting covered up again in 2018 presumably to return operational status soon.”

- USA raport: Kaliningradis võib olla maa-alune tuumarelvahoidla
(Postimees)
"Satelliitfotod kinnitavad, et Venemaa on uuendanud Kaliningradi oblastis asuvat arvatavat tuumarelvaladu. Renoveerimine tõstatab küsimusi Venemaa kavatsuste kohta objekti kasutamisel."

- Russia could be storing nuclear weapons less than 50 miles from the Polish border
(Business Insider)

- USA teadlased märkasid Kaliningradi tuumarelvahoidla renoveerimist
(ERR)



- Crimea’s growing water problem might provoke new Russian attack against Ukraine
(Euromaidan)
"At the beginning of summer 2018, the self-proclaimed authorities of Crimea announced a state of emergency in several regions. And the dry weather is only a small part of the problem. Since the beginning of the occupation, Crimea is cut off from water coming from mainland Ukraine. This water is crucial for the arid peninsula. Experts assume that the catastrophic water situation could spur another Russian act of aggression against Ukraine. Even the occupation government was compelled to acknowledge the problem."



- Putin faces anger over broken promise on pensions
(The Times | Meduza | Riddle)
"Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, announced that the state pension age would be raised from 60 to 65 for men and 55 to 63 for women over the next ten to 16 years. About 57 per cent of Russian men die before the age of 65, according to statistics. Russian women can expect to live to 73. “What’s the point of paying towards your pension, if you are not going to live to get one?” wrote one Twitter user.”
—
"Over 90 per cent of Russians are against the move, a recent opinion poll found, and almost two million people have already signed a petition demanding that the government scrap its plans."
—
—

- The opposition politician Alexey Navalny has announced plans to stage protests in 20 cities on July 1 against the government’s proposal to raise Russia's retirement age.
(Meduza)

- Petersburg Politics Foundation Outlines Five Possible Scenarios for the Pension Debate
(Window on Eurasia)

Putin May Decide to Use Pension Crisis to Oust Liberals in the Government.



- The World Cup in Kaliningrad: Potemkin Village or real change?
(EDFR)

- Ukrainian Film Director Stages Hunger Strike In Russian Jail During World Cup
(NPR)

- Between Sochi and the World Cup, Putin built up a resistance to Western criticism over human rights
(PRI)

- 5 ways the football World Cup has transformed Moscow - for now
(Deutsche Welle)

- What’s it really like in Russia? During World Cup: more vibrant 
(Washington Post)

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