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05 April, 2019



  • Kaljulaid ja Putin peaksid kohtuma Kremlis 18. aprillil

  • Riigikogu XIV koosseis andis ametivande

  • Vabariigi President XIV Riigikogu esimesel istungil

  • President Kaljulaid at the opening session of the XIV Riigikogu

  • “EKRE, whose fiercely anti-immigrant message lifted its support during the European migration crisis in 2015, got 19 seats in the March 3 vote … Its leaders have promised street unrest if they were left out of the cabinet.”



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Friday 
5. April
__________


Kaljulaid to visit Moscow
(BNN | ERR)
[Reportedly on or around 18. April.]


Kaljulaid’s Russia visit worry experts
(ERR)
“President Kersti Kaljulaid’s meeting with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, set to take place on April 18, is shrouded in mystery. It remains unclear why such a high-level meeting is planned. Several experts have criticized secrecy surrounding the meeting’s agenda, as well as the fact the visit is being planned during a time Estonia is between governments.”


Analüüs: Kaljulaidil ja Putinil pole põhjust piirilepingust rääkida
(ERR)
“On üks teema, millest Eesti ja Venemaa presidendid Kersti Kaljulaid ja Vladimir Putin aprilli keskel Kremlis ei räägi. See on Eesti-Vene piirileping. Aga on muid teemasid, mida arutada.
Kaljulaid ja Putin peaksid kohtuma Kremlis 18. aprillil, kui Eesti president lendab Mosvasse, et avada seal pidulikult Eesti saatkonna renoveeritud hoone. Meie välisministeerium küsis samas ajaks kahe riigi presidentide kohtumist, mispeale teatas Putini pressiesindaja, et kohtumist kavandataksegi ja sama kinnitas Venemaa suursaadik Eestis Aleksandr Petrov.”









Estonian president names Kaja Kallas PM candidate; proposal to form government
(The Baltic Times)
“Kaljulaid has on Friday nominated Kaja Kallas, the chairwoman of the election-winning Reform Party, to try and form the next government. This could prove difficult as three other parties have been in unofficial coalition talks for some time now.”

Estonia election winner downplays chance of becoming prime minister
(Reuters)
“Kallas now has two weeks to present a plan for forming a cabinet. If she fails, President Kersti Kaljulaid can turn to Ratas who has worked for weeks on his alternative.”
“EKRE, whose fiercely anti-immigrant message lifted its support during the European migration crisis in 2015, got 19 seats in the March 3 vote … Its leaders have promised street unrest if they were left out of the cabinet.”

How does the formation of a coalition government in Estonia work?
(ERR)



Sputniku uued propagandanõksud
(Propastop)

New propaganda techniques from Sputnik



✔︎ Report: “Above Us Only Stars”
(C4ADS)
Russia has capabilities in disrupting GPS and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems “… by attacking positioning, navigational, and timing (PNT) data through electronic warfare capabilities, state and non-state actors can cause significant damage to modern militaries, first-world economies, and everyday consumers alike.”

Russia Tricks GPS Signals to Hide Putin’s Location
(The Moscow Times)



Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier May Never Return to Active Service
(Window on Eurasia)
“The much-troubled Admiral Kuznetsov, that even now cannot go to sea without the accompaniment of tugboats capable of pulling it back to port, may never return to active service because, after the drydock disaster of last October, Moscow doesn’t have the capacity to refit it anytime soon.”
Russian officials have now acknowledged that the October 29 accident involving Russia’s only aircraft carrier and largest floating dry dock has made continuing the refit of the ship impossible. The dry dock, the PD-50, was the only one available capable of accommodating the 55,000 ton Admiral Kuznetsov.


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- NATO: 70 years -



NATO Foreign Ministers’ statement on the occasion of NATO's 70th Anniversary
(Press Release)



Address to the United States Congress by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
(NATO Transcript)

Congress greets NATO's Stoltenberg with rousing string of standing ovations
(Axios)



Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
(YouTube)



Why We Stand With NATO
by Tim Kaine and Cory Gardner
(The Atlantic)
“On April 4, 1949, Johannes Kaiv, the acting consul general of Estonia’s government-in-exile, sent a letter to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, which read: 

I have the honor to offer my best wishes to the signatories of the North Atlantic Pact, and to express my confidence that they, inspired by the ideals of democracy, of individual liberty, and the rule of law, will strive relentlessly for peace with justice, which excludes peace at any price. Therefore, I express the belief that countries which were forcibly deprived of self-government and independence will benefit by this noble endeavor.’

“Estonia would have to wait 55 years to join NATO, a decade after the nation regained its freedom from the Soviet empire. But the values that make NATO relevant today are the same that Kaiv identified in 1949, when he lamented the fate of his occupied homeland …”


Does Nato Provoke Russia? No. But the Kremlin wants you to think so.
(CEPA)
“As Washington mulls the possibility of permanently stationing a limited contingent of U.S. troops in Poland, a new salvo of anti-NATO criticisms has again appeared in the Western media.”


The three times Moscow attempted to join NATO
(Meduza)
[1954 | 2005 | 2001]


A Ton of NATO articles:
































__________

Thursday 
4. April
__________


„Tõe ja õiguse” võttepaigast saab külastuskeskus
(Lõuna Leht)
“Läti piiri ääres asuvas Vastse-Roosas … Huvi on väga suur.”



'Truth and Justice' visitors' centre to open in Võrumaa
(ERR)



Nii tehakse filme tegelikult: vaata, kuidas sündis “Tõe ja õiguse” efektimaagia
(Delfi)
“Sadade inimeste töö viljana sündinud filmi saamislugu on pikk ja keerukas ning väga suurt osa mängis filmi sündimisel ka visuaalsete efektide eest vastutanud Frost FX, kelle tööd ei tohiks mitte kuidagi alahinnata, sest nende meeste ja naiste ühise pingutuse kaasabil kujunes "Tõest ja õigusest" see film, mis mitte ainult ei purustanud vaatajarekordeid, vaid mida võib nimetada ka üheks kõige tugevamaks debüüdiks läbi aegade.”



Estonian populist lawmaker elected parliament speaker
(Washington Post)
“Henn Polluaas of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party, or EKRE, known for its anti-immigration and euroskeptic stance, was elected Thursday in the 101-seat Riigikogu assembly.”



Ukraine presidential elections narrowed down to 2 contenders
(New Eastern Europe)
“The results of the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine will pit incumbent President Petro Poroshenko against comedian and TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy. A surprisingly unpredictable election process will continue through April.”

Europe’s big election mess
(Politico-Europe)

Europe’s populists are flooding social media



European Countries With Women At The Helm
(RFERL  graphic)


Lithuania becomes EU's only all-male government
(EU Observer)



NATO–Russia Relations: The Return of the Enemy
(Warsaw Institute)
“Over the past five years, tensions have mounted between Russia and NATO, bringing a risk of the most serious direct armed conflict for the first time in decades. Still, such a scenario is unlikely to materialize in the short run.”



Reindeer racing in Finland
(The Guardian)



__________

Wednesday 
3. April
__________


Stoltenberg: püüdleme paremate suhete poole Venemaaga
(Postimees)
“Me ei soovi Venemaad isoleerida. Me püüdleme paremate suhete poole Venemaaga. … Kuid isegi paremate suhete korral peame rasketega toime tulema.”



How Estonia fought for Latvian independence
(Latvian Broadcasting)
“In late 1918, there were many Latvian refugees and former soldiers in Estonia. As fighting against the Bolsheviks started, the Estonian government wanted to mobilize them. On January 20, 1919, in the interests of the Latvian Provisional Government, Latvia's military representative in Estonia Jorģis Zemitāns concluded an agreement with Estonia over setting up six self-defense companies. On January 26-27, 1919 the first conscription calls took place in Estonia and the liberated Northern Latvian parishes. …”



EKRE MP Ruuben Kaalep has a long history of neo-Nazi activity
(ERR)
“… activities include … Kaalep's links with Paul Hickman, British founder of the National Action neo-Nazi group, which has been recognised as a terrorist group by British authorities and placed on the same list as ISIS and al Qaeda, the paper reports, as well as an approving quote about US white supremacist Richard Spencer, who himself had quoted Mr Kaalep.”





Defending shared values: Estonia in an evolving Europe
(Brookings)



Browder Files Criminal Complaint Against Swedbank in Estonia
(Bloomberg | Reuters)
“Recent reports suggest that Swedbank employees knew about these as early as 2013 and kept them open,” Browder said in an email. “We are hoping that a criminal investigation will determine the legal liability of employees and management of Swedbank in this alleged money laundering scheme.”



In document signed with Lithuania, US commits to troop deployment to Baltics
(Baltic Times | US Defense Department)
“The roadmap detailing military cooperation between the nations through 2024 calls on the United States to continue to deploy forces to the Baltic states "to strengthen deterrence and to catalyze the efforts of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to develop their national defense further," the US Department of Defense said in a press release.”

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