✔︎ A year after the 2007 cyber attack on Estonia, Russia hacked Georgia while physically invading it with conventional military forces. It’s the 10th anniversary of that invasion, so let’s take a look back.
- See ‘The Russia-Georgia War’ extensive news listing below, which includes an interview with Eerik-Niiles Kross.
✔︎ USA uus kaitsepoliitika seadus mainib ka eriüksuslaste baasi Eestis
- ERR
✔︎ According to a World Press Freedom Index for 2018, Estonia's press freedom is ranked 12 out of a total of 180 countries.
✔︎ "I say 'I’m a liberal'. That says nothing about whether I’m left or right, but I believe in free and fair elections, rule of law, respect for human rights.”
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- On-line version:
- 2014-2018 Archive:
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Friday 17. August
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- Kaitsevägi lõpetab aktiivsed raketiotsingud
(ERR)
"Kaitsevägi otsustas reedel lõpetada eelmisel teisipäeval Hispaania hävitajalt eksikombel välja lastud raketi aktiivsed otsingud. Vihjetele jäädakse reageerima."
- Defence Forces are ending the active search for the missing missile
- Baltic Air Policing: Belgium to take over lead and Germany to augment
(NATO)
"From September 2018, the Belgian Air Force will take the lead over the mission at Šiauliai, Lithuania, while the German Air Force will augment out of Ämari, Estonia."
- Idapiiri hoolduseks kulub 2026. aastani 70 miljonit eurot
(ERR)
- Eastern border maintenance to cost €70 million through 2026
- Estonia in favour of remaining on summer time
(ERR)
- Time running out for the EU's changing clocks?
(Deutsche Welle)
- Moscow’s ‘Little Green Men’ Stage Provocation in Moldova
(Window on Eurasia)
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Thursday 16. August
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- USA kordas pühendumust Balti piirkonna julgeolekule
(ERR)
"Readout of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dunford's Meeting with Lithuanian Chief of Defence Lt. Gen. Jonas Žukas.”
"Poola kaitseminister: USA alalised baasid tõenäoliselt tulevad."
- Moscow Now Pursuing ‘Forced Integration’ of Belarus into Russia
(Window on Eurasia)
"Russian actions toward Belarus since 2015 show that Moscow is no longer pursuing the “union deal” it had established with Minsk earlier and instead has placed its bets on the forced integration of its western neighbor into a Russian-dominated state …"
"Fake News and Speculation Assaults Belarus."
"Belarus: Journalists Decry Wave Of Arrests."
"Belarus' press freedom is ranked 155 out of 180 countries."
- Business Lessons From The World's Most Digital Country, Estonia, And The Happiest Country, Finland
(Forbes)
- Journalists Are Not The Enemy
(Boston Globe)
"A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “The enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences. … More than 380 news outlets from around the country have joined our effort to support a free press."
- Ameerika Meedia: Vaba Ajakirjandus Vajab Sind
(Postimees)
- Opinion: A Free Press Needs You
(New York Times)
- US media fight back against Trump attacks
(Deutsche Welle)
- Marvin Kalb addresses President Trump’s attacks on the press and judiciary
(Brookings)
- Fragile Loyalties: Soviet Russians Between Hitler and Stalin
by Johannes Due Enstad
(War on the Rocks)
"The Stalinist regime, bent on cleansing the (Russian) country of opponents and enemies, made itself the worst enemy of its own people. The regime’s war against the peasantry naturally generated hostility and resentment in the countryside. As one wartime inhabitant of northwest Russia later put it, “My forefathers were affluent peasants; the Bolsheviks turned them into beggars and slaves.” Such emotions fed rumors, recurring frequently throughout the 1930s, of a coming war in which the Bolsheviks would be crushed and the collective farms dissolved."
—
"When the actual invasion came, authorities and witnesses recorded utterances such as “Now I expect salvation only from Hitler,” “Now we will hang all your Communists, and our lives will become better,” and “The Germans will dissolve the cursed kolkhozes, and then we will have our own farms again.”
Author focused on the northwest region of Russia, east of Estonia
- What Russia Understands about Trump
(The New York Review of Books)
“Here’s this rich American who’s bandied about loosely the idea of running for political office,” says Steven Hall, a former head of Russia operations for the CIA. “What that triggers on the side of the KGB is: ‘We’re going to collect on him. We’re not going to do high-level physical surveillance, but we’re going to collect on him, see where he stays, wire him, do some open source research. You never know where he’ll wind up. ...”
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Wednesday 15. August
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- US State Dept. cable accuses Russia of stoking distrust in Finland
(Yle)
"A declassified missive from 2016 says the US had assessed that Russian actors were behind efforts to "raise suspicions about joining NATO" in Finland and Sweden."
- Russian meddling a rising concern in Helsinki
by Anna Nemtsova
(Foreign Policy - 31. July)
"For decades, Finland has managed to walk the finest of lines between Europe and Russia—with which it shares an 833-mile border. Helsinki cooperates with NATO but has pointedly stopped short of full membership in the alliance, with only about 22 percent of the population supporting joining NATO. It has maintained good relations with Moscow even as it backed Western economic sanctions against Russia over Crimea. But the middle road has become more treacherous lately. …”
- Cars set on fire during rampage across Sweden
(Euronews | Radio Sweden)
"Groups of youths set fire to cars as they went on the rampage in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Gothenburg and Helsingborg on Monday evening as chaos descended across the country, in attacks Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said looked organised."
"Up to 80 cars were set on fire Monday night in western Sweden, in what Gothenburg police suspect was a coordinated attack spread via social media. Police and fire crews responded to fires in several areas of Gothenburg as well as nearby Trollhättan, Lysekil and Falkenberg.” [Police arrested 2 for the arson attacks.]
[Police reportedly caught a third suspect on his way to Turkey.]
- Russian propaganda in Montenegro, Sweden, and Finland
(Euromaidan Press)
- Putin's Approval Ratings Are Declining Sharply
(Foreign Affairs)
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Tuesday 14. August
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- USA uus kaitsepoliitika seadus mainib ka eriüksuslaste baasi Eestis
(ERR)
"15,7 miljonit dollarit on mõeldud ehitustöödeks ja maaostuks täpsemalt määratlemata kohas Eestis. Kusjuures 6,1 miljonit peaks minema operatsioonidebaasi rajamiseks, ning 9,6 miljonit treeningbaasi rajamiseks."
- H.R. 5515: The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act
(U.S. Congress)
- What’s in the defense authorization act?
(PBS Newshour | Lawfare)
"The bill includes $6.3 billion in funding for the presence of U.S. troops in Europe — the largest amount of money spent on U.S. troops in Europe since the Cold War. The bill also moves the Europe-based troops one step closer to permanent deployment."
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- US increasing deterrence in Europe
(ERR)
- US Air Force builds in Russia’s backyard
(Defense News - June 2018)
“The 2018 budget funded refueling infrastructure and a tactical fighter aircraft parking apron and taxiway at Amari Air Base, in Estonia, so it can support the A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22 and F-35 aircraft. The 2019 budget request asks for $16 million more for U.S. Special Operations Command training and operations facilities at Amari.”
- US defense budget includes call for bolstering Baltic air policing mission
(Leta)
- Estonia is unconcerned about a possible Russian cyberattack
(CNBC)
"We worry less than others actually, because we have a high level of digitalization and we started to protect ourselves when you know digital was still young… Our people have a high level of cyber-hygiene.” - President Kersti Kaljulaid
- Air force training exercises in Estonian airspace continue to be suspended
(Leta)
“... after a Spanish Air Force jet on the Baltic air policing mission misfired an air-to-air missile on Aug. 7."
- Estonia established no-fly zones in Tallinn for UEFA Super Cup match
(Baltic Course)
“… above Freedom Square and the Lillekula Stadium."
- Estonians talk up Rail Baltica's importance
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"As a gigantic infrastructure project, Rail Baltica will have a significant impact on the Baltic construction market and may even help lure migrants from the region home, according to a discussion held at the Arvamus opinion festival in Paide …"
- Isolated nations and 'lopsided' alliances 'add to frustration with EU’
(Euronews)
"The survey of policy makers across the EU’s 28 member states also finds that several countries are in “lop-sided relationships” where their view of another nation’s importance to them is not reciprocated."
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Monday 13. August
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- Estonian-American Special Forces pioneer Jyri Laats dies at 95
(ERR)
—
"1 of first 7th Group soldiers dies."
- Eesti kagupiiril korjatakse autodest ära iga päev mitu antiradarit
(Lõuna Eestlane)
"Mootorsõiduki juhtimise eest, milles asub kiirusemõõteseadet avastada või selle tööd häirida võimaldav seade, võib määrata kuni 400 eurose rahatrahvi ja seade võidakse ka konfiskeerida."
- Russian Yandex taxis in the Baltic States gather data and upload to Russian servers
(Warsaw Institute)
"The Yandex Taxi app works almost in the same way as American Uber and Estonian Taxify. The difference is that Russian taxies which drive through the streets of Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius have an additional function: they gather and upload data about their passengers to the Russian servers. As a result, the data become a part of the Big Data sets which can be used by Russians for political purposes."
- NATO to invest in Lithuanian training area
(Warsaw Institute)
"The training area in Pabrade is being visited by the increasing number of domestic and allied groups of soldiers. The area is also used to carry out tasks with the use of modern weapons – this is a sufficient argument for the development. The training area is planned to be modernised and extended so that it would allow for the simultaneous realisation of tasks by a unit of the size of a brigade. Larger space will enable comfortable training of the Lithuanian “Žemaitija” and “Geležinis Vilkas” brigades and of the NATO battle group deployed in Lithuania."
- Italian vessel assists in removing Russian Navy’s nuclear waste
(Bellona Org.)
"An enormous floating dock given to Russia by Italy has been put to use transferring a radioactive barge from the Zvezdochka Shipyard in Severodvinsk to safe storage at the Sayda Bay facility near Murmansk.”
—
"The radioactively contaminated barge, called the PM-124, was built in 1960 and used as a floating dock for servicing nuclear submarines in the Soviet Northern Fleet. Slated for use until 1985, it continued collecting fuel assemblies for another 20 years. Since 2005, the fuel assemblies have been removed, but but for a time the barge was used used for storing other forms of solid radioactive waste at Zvezdochka."
- Russia’s Most Wanted Man
(The New Yorker)
“Joshua Yaffe writes a long profile of Bill Browder, the American-born hedge-fund manager who helped create the “Magnitsky Act." That law, which is used to sanction Russian human-rights violators, is a particular annoyance of Putin. Bill Browder was a subject of the Trump Tower meeting and the Helsinki summit."
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The Russia-Georgia War
August 2008
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- Interview: Eerik-Niiles Kross - regarding the Georgia-Russia war
By Vazha Tavberidze
(Georgia Today)
"The five-day August War between Georgia and Russia, however, was a major geopolitical occasion which largely announced the blueprint of what to expect from Putin’s Russia. Many think it was a lesson the West disregarded, only to come to regret. One who does is Eerik-Niiles Kross, Saakashvili’s Estonian National Security Adviser during and after the war."
- 10 Years after Georgia-Russia War
(Multiple sources)
"Several times a week, EU monitors visit a small Russian checkpoint just outside the village of Odzisi, along what has become Georgia's de facto northern border, to observe and document Russia's so-called "borderization" activities. Clad in blue vests emblazoned with the EU flag and carrying binoculars and cameras, the monitors pile out of their Nissan Patrol SUVs about 50 feet in front of the checkpoint. On the other side of the red-and-white gate blocking the entrance to the checkpoint, the Russian border guards, dressed in green camouflage fatigues with rifles slung over their shoulders, pull out their own binoculars and cameras."
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"For half an hour or so, each side takes photos of the other side taking photos. A stray dog nicknamed Putin wanders the empty road in between. Eventually, the European Union monitors pile back into their SUVs and drive away. The Russian guards go back to searching cars of people crossing from one side to the other. What passes for normality resumes. ...”
"Ten years after the war: Georgia’s dissent to Russian hegemony."
“Russian troops have been moving a disputed boundary deeper into Georgia."
"Vladimir Putin’s Mysterious Moving Border."
"10 Years After Putin’s Invasion, Russia Still Occupies Parts of Georgia."
"The five-day conflict in 2008 centred on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two breakaway provinces in Georgia."
“… the conflicts in the occupied regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in the 1990s and 2008, affected more than half a million people, 278,103 out of them became internally displaced persons after 20% of the territory of Georgia was occupied by Russia."
“The Georgia Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Project.”
"The Forgotten Victims 10 Years On."
"Medvedev Ignored in Russian Coverage of 10th Anniversary of Georgian War.”
“10 Years Later: NATO Troops Train With Georgians.”
"Georgia-NATO Relations After the Brussels Summit.”
- Analyzing the Russian Way of War: The 2008 Conflict with Georgia
(Modern War Institute at West Point)
"In the dog days of August 2008, a column of Russian tanks and troops rolled across the Republic of Georgia’s northern border and into South Ossetia, sparking a war that was over almost before it began. The war, while not insignificant, lasted all of five days. The number of casualties did not exceed one thousand, the threshold most political scientists use to classify a war, although thousands of Georgians were displaced. By historical comparison, when Soviet tanks entered Hungary in 1956 and Afghanistan in 1979–89, the fatalities totaled 2,500 and roughly 14,000 respectively. …"
"The Role of the cyber attacks in the Georgia-Russia conflict."
"Before the gunfire came cyberattacks."
"As hundreds of battered Russian armored vehicles wound through the mountain passes toward Tskhinvali, an AP reporter saw a number of tanks broken down in the road, blocking traffic; or being repaired, with soldiers working underneath them with wrenches; or even being towed by other vehicles. ...”
"Moscow formulated far-reaching goals when it carefully prepared—over a period of at least 2 1/2 years, and possibly longer—for a land invasion of Georgia. …"
"An Initial Look at Russian Military Performance in Georgia."
- The International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia
(European Court of Human Rights)
"On the night of 7. to 8. August 2008, after an extended period of ever-mounting tensions and incidents, heavy fighting erupted in and around the town of Tskhinvali in South Ossetia. The fighting, which soon extended to other parts of Georgia, lasted for five days. In many places throughout the country it caused serious destruction, reaching levels of utter devastation in a number of towns and villages. Human losses were substantial. At the end, the Georgian side claimed losses of 170 servicemen, 14 policemen and 228 civilians killed and 1,747 persons wounded. The Russian side claimed losses of 67 servicemen killed and 283 wounded. The South Ossetians spoke of 365 persons killed, which probably included both servicemen and civilians. Altogether about 850 persons lost their lives, not to mention those who were wounded, who went missing, or the far more than 100,000 civilians who fled their homes.”
"Georgia Accuses Russia Of 'Ethnic Cleansing' At European Court.”
[Georgia started the war with Russia as per a 2009 EU-backed report … but it also said that Moscow’s military response went beyond reasonable limits and violated international law.]
"Georgia accuses Russia of war crimes during 2008 conflict."
- Legal Aspects of War in Georgia
(U.S. Library of Congress)
"An analysis of Russian and international law, as well as the review of how the “peace enforcement operation” was conducted by Russia in Georgia in August 2008, leads one to conclude that no international or domestic legal act can justify the Russian military invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Georgia, or the recognition of the self-proclaimed independence of Georgian separatist regions by the Russian Federation. It appears that these actions were conducted in violation of major international law principles and Russian national legislation."
- Additional stories:
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- Russia Threatens a Renewed War in Georgia to Prevent NATO Enlargement
(Jamestown Org.)
"The Russian War Against Georgia is Far from Over.”
"Georgia Plans Its ‘To Do’ Agenda for NATO”
"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the possibility of Georgia joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) could trigger a “terrible conflict” and questioned why the military alliance would consider such a move."
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