‘Estonia’ / ‘エストニア'
“Hetalia: Axis Powers” is a Japanese webcomic (also made into a manga and anime series) by Hidekaz Himaruya, a former student of Parsons School of Design in New York. The stories are over-the-top, concerning world events with historic and cultural comparisons between countries. The characters are personifications of these countries.
'Estonia' (エストニア) was introduced in episode #29 joining charactors ‘Latvia' and 'Lithuania'. In the episode the three proceed to interact with the series’ regular character ‘Russia’.
Per Hetalia Wiki: "The second oldest of the Baltics, he is an ace student and is considered the luckiest of the three, having managed to avoid problems with his wit and many years of wisdom. Estonia is mild-mannered, peppy, and carries himself well. Around others, he is cool, logical, and business-like but in private he is pretty calm. He is skilled at information technology and economics, and appears to have good relations with most of the other nations. However, he tends to work at his own pace and doesn't pay much attention to his surroundings so he often goes unnoticed by others, despite his status as an ace student.”
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Friday 21. April
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✔︎ Kuidas oleme 25 aastaga muutunud
(Äripäev)
"Eesti taasiseseisvumise 25. aastapäevaks valminud graafikud näitavad, kuidas on vaba eestlase elukäik selle ajaga muutunud. Loomulikult on muutus olnud meeldiv, rühime ikka ülesmäge, aga selle meeldetuletamine on hädasti vajalik praegusel ajal, kus poliitikas tundub kõik valesti, ükskõik milline on sinu maailmavaade, ja majanduses paistavad järgmise kriisi kõrvad iga nurga tagant."
- Venekeelsed inimesed on leppinud pronkssõduri uue asukohaga, aga valitsuse käitumine tekitab endiselt pahameelt
(Delfi video)
[Intervjuud on Vene keeles | Eesti subtiitrid.]
- Paldiskis mälestati langenud kaitseväelasi
(Postimees | ERR)
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- Estonia ceremony marks deployment of UK troops
(The Telegraph-Uk)
- How the Kremlin uses Russia’s criminal networks in Europe
(Mark Galeotti)
"Along the border between Finland and Russia crime is highly organised. Russian companies control the lion’s share of heavy goods traffic, as well as forwarding and transhipment companies in Finland, especially in Helsinki, Kotka, and Hamina. These often simultaneously operate as front organisations for the smuggling of illegal goods, including drugs. However, Finland is not a target in itself so much as a gateway to the rest of Europe.”
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"In September 2014, Estonian Kapo (Security Police) officer Eston Kohver was about to meet an informant, when an FSB snatch squad crossed the border with Russia and forcibly abducted him. He was convicted on trumped-up espionage charges and subsequently traded for a Russian agent. The primary reason for the brazen raid appears not have been the exchange, nor even a chance to warn Estonia of Russia’s capacity and willingness to intrude, so much as to derail Kohver’s ongoing investigation into illegal cross-border cigarette trafficking. The evidence suggests that the FSB was facilitating the smuggling activity through an RBOC group in return for a cut of the profits. This was not for the enrichment of the officers concerned, but to raise operational funds for active political measures in Europe that had no Russian ‘fingerprints’ on them."
- Russia’s Shadow-War in a Wary Europe
(ProPublica)
"Fears of Russian meddling in a French vote reflect an overt and covert influence campaign. … Last month, the combative populist Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front flew to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin. It was a display of longtime mutual admiration. The frontrunner in a field of 11 candidates, Le Pen shrugs off allegations of corruption and human rights abuses against Putin, calling him a tough and effective leader. Her hard-line views on immigration, Islam and the European Union win praise from Putin and enthusiastic coverage from Russian media outlets. Her campaign has been propelled by a loan of more than $9 million from a Russian bank in 2014, according to Western officials and media reports.”
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“One of the reasons Russia has been so successful has been its ability to develop tactics and techniques it selectively uses depending on the target country.”
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Thursday 20. April
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- Song as Resistance: The Story of Estonia’s Singing Revolution
(Global Comment)
- Propaganda 101: Recent Stories Repeating Disinformation
(DisInfo Review - PDF table)
- Paul Ryan Leads Congressional Delegation to Norway, Poland, Estonia, UK
(CNS)
✔︎ Putin-linked think tank drew up plan to sway 2016 U.S. election - documents
(Reuters)
“:… three current and four former U.S. officials … described two confidential documents from the think tank as providing the framework and rationale for what U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was an intensive effort by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 election. U.S. intelligence officials acquired the documents, which were prepared by the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies [en.riss.ru/], after the election."
- Think-tank Denies Accusation
(Russian Institute for Strategic Studies)
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Wednesday 19. April
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- Sotsiaalmeedia manipulaatorite küüsis
(PropaStop)
"Et tegemist on eksiarvamusega ja sotsiaalmeediat saab soovi korral edukalt manipuleerida ja kallutada …"
- President Kaljulaid Liibanoni suunduvale kaitseväe üksusele: teie panus on väga oluline
(Delfi)
“Olete suuremad kui üks jalaväerühm. Esindate Liibanonis tervet Eestit, UNIFILi Iiri-Soome ühispataljonis aga tervet NATO-t. Olete üks meie välispoliitika tööriistu selles regioonis.”
- Small-time propagandists: Who is polluting the Baltic internet in Russian?
(re: Baltica)
“Rubaltic,ru is another cog in the Kremlin’s Baltic disinformation machine, a series of little known websites sitting on the outskirts of the public debate pumping out negative stories or outright falsehoods on events in the Baltic states. The stories are spread via social media and republished on marginal Russian websites and later picked up by some Baltic media. Readers looking for news in Russian on the Baltic states have to wade through a swamp of misinformation and manufactured news funded by this Kremlin-friendly network."
- United in Favor of Preserving the E.U.
(The New Yorker)
"Pulse of Europe (is) a grassroots movement dreamed up by a Frankfurt-based lawyer in response to the feelings of intense dismay brought on by watching Donald Trump’s victory on television. … Their mission is simple: to show support for the European Union."
- EU: Border controls extended without justification
(EU Observer)
"Earlier this year, the European Commission agreed for Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway to impose border controls for three months following ministerial letters to justify the blockades. … The commission has been pressing the states to phase out the controls without much success. The goal was to lift them all by the end of 2016."
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Tuesday 18. April
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✔︎ U.S. And Baltic Special Ops Just Fought a Fake Guerrilla War in West Virginia
(The Drive - 6. April)
"To the casual observer, the scene might’ve looked like an odd cross between a reenactment of a past war and a demonstration of a future conflict. Elite special operators, some of whom were speaking foreign languages, were roving around the hills of West Virginia on foot, horseback, all-terrain vehicles, and by helicopter, while practicing specialized tactics, some of which are nearly a century old."
--
"But this wasn’t another remake of the movie Red Dawn or a weird time-traveling short story. It was a real life, routine exercise called Ridge Runner 2017 that occurred in February 2017. The particular group of participants - including special operators from the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all of whom are NATO members - and certain practice sessions suggested the event had a lot to do with Russia’s increasingly revanchist polices in Europe.”
- Estonia and Estonians in the Strategic Confrontation of the Cold War
(Diplomaatica)
- Declassified Nuke Targets within 1950’s Estonia
(National Security Archives - EstoNews)
- Estonia aims to lure UK academics as ‘e-residents’
(Financial Times)
“We have heard from academics in the UK who are concerned by the potential impact of Brexit but see e-residency as a solution,” said Kaspar Korjus, head of the e-residency programme. … A ‘virtual institute’ registered in Estonia through e-residency would enable them to continue working in the UK but also preserve their presence within the EU’s academic environment . . . as well as apply for EU funding”.
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"The UK receives a disproportionate share of European research funding but fears are growing that researchers in other countries could turn their backs on collaborating with British-based academics now that the process of Brexit has begun."
- Latvia: In the shadow of Russia
(Deutsche Welle - video report)
- Sex and lies: Russia's EU news
(EU Observer)
“… Russian media have been targeting France and Germany for years with hundreds of fake or distorted stories, many of which were designed to incite sexual revulsion toward asylum seekers and the politicians who gave them shelter."
- Turkey: Vote Could Mean the End of a Courtship to Join the E.U.
(New York Times)
"For decades, the European Union dangled the possibility of membership before an eager suitor in Turkey. But it was never a perfect match. Too many Europeans had reservations about having a predominantly Muslim state, with porous and volatile borders and a checkered human rights record …"
- Turkey: ErdoÄŸan Is Now Effectively a Dictator
(The New Yorker)
- Opinion: It's Time To Break Off EU Membership Talks with Turkey
(Spiegel)
- Iceland: Little taste for EU membership
(Iceland Monitor)
"Since 2009, the year the then Icelandic government launched EU accession talks which were few years later unilaterally terminated by Iceland, all opinion polls published have had a large majority against joining the bloc. The most recent one produced by pollster MMR has 69% against membership and less than a third in favour."
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Monday 17. April
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- Interview: Mariin Ratnik
(Cipher Brief)
[Mariin Ratnik is the head of security policy and transatlantic relations within Estonia’s Foreign Ministry.]
✔︎ NATO Launches Battalion In Poland Near Kaliningrad Border
(RFERL | Radio Poland)
"The unit will be under U.S. command and have about 1,000 troops, including members from Britain and Romania, with Croatian soldiers expected to join later."
✔︎ Kaliningrad: From boomtown to battle-station
(ECFR - 27. March)
"In 2017 Moscow has appeared determined to upgrade military capabilities in the oblast, which it sees as a key strategic territory. Kaliningrad oblast has hosted a number of military exercises, using its most advanced weaponry, including the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system, the P-800 Oniks anti-ship cruise missile, and the formidable Iskander-M ballistic missile system that can destroy targets within a 500 kilometre range.”
—
"However, even these events are somewhat overshadowed by the upcoming Zapad 2017 strategic joint military exercises that will be held by Belarus and Russia in the autumn. It will be the first edition of the games to take place since 2013, and in keeping with tradition, part of the games will be hosted by Kaliningrad.”
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“Kaliningrad is one of the most important Russian regions in terms of military security and that the entire strategy of NATO containment is based on the military capabilities of Kaliningrad.”
- Why Russia's Massive Zapad Military Exercises Scare the World
(The National Interest)
"Held every two years, another Zapad is due later this year, in September. Tentatively dubbed Zapad 2017, little is known of the exercise at this early stage, except that it will undoubtedly be a window into new Russian tactical concepts and innovations, including lessons learned in the conflict in Syria. The exercise will also function to once again rattle the NATO Baltic countries and Scandinavia, reminding them that Russia considers their neighborhood its own backyard."
- Discussing Identity and Minorities in an Estonian Border city [pt. 2]
(Deep Baltic)
[Pt. 1]
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- Russia -
"Trust No One"
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✔︎ Lenin and the Russian Spark
(The New Yorker)
"On April 16, 1917, a short train carrying thirty-two passengers steamed into one of St. Petersburg’s less distinguished stations, completing an eight-day journey from Zurich. These passengers were arriving late to a revolution that had started without them, earlier that year, after food riots broke out in the imperial capital. But one of them - Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - would quickly seize control of events.”
—
"A new book by Catherine Merridale, “Lenin on the Train,” pays careful attention to the secret rail journey through Germany, Sweden, and the Grand Duchy of Finland that brought Lenin to his destination."
✔︎ To Whitewash the Soviet Past, Putin Regime Now Seizing and Destroying Archives
(Paul Goble)
“… according to scholars at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.”
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"Nominally working under the direction of the ministry of culture, the security services began ransacking the archives of the museum, devoting particular attention to Stalin’s sale of art to the West in the 1920s and 1930s. The officers took catalogues and other archival materials and carried away “in an unknown direction all archival documents on this subject.”
- Opinion: Russia and NATO - Drama redux
(Aljazeera)
"The war in Eastern Ukraine goes on underreported and Vladimir Putin ratchets up his rhetoric. In a statement on 12 April, he pledged to fight back "colour revolutions" in any of the post-Soviet countries within the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. As ever, Russia is ready to cut deals with the West outside its "near abroad" but insists that the latter should stay off limits."
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"The vexing issue is where the line is drawn separating the Russian from the Western spheres of influence. The three Baltic states fear that they, too, could fall prey to Russian aggression. The traumatic memories of their annexation in 1940 by the Soviets have left a deep imprint. Justifiably or not, the presence of Russian-speaking communities makes the Crimean precedent painfully relevant to Estonia and Latvia."
- Russia's #NewNationalism
(Deutsche Welle)
"Recent protests across Russia show that not everyone is happy. Demonstrators deplore corruption and economic stagnation. But even among them you find those who support Putin's foreign policy."
- Russia's Secretive Floating Nuclear Power Plant Making Waves In St. Petersburg
(RFERL)
"Ecologists in Russia's northern capital are raising the alarm over government plans to fuel a floating nuclear power plant just 2 kilometers from the heart of the city. Officials have been saying since December that they are nearly ready to begin fueling the Akademik Lomonosov, the country's first-ever ship-borne nuclear-power station, which is scheduled to be deployed at Vilyuchinsk on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula in 2019.”
- Moscow plans to give people new apartments, but is there a catch?
(Christian Science Monitor)
"The effort to move about 1.6 million residents out of the nearly 8,000 targeted buildings – dubbed Khrushchevki after Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who ordered them built – is in principle a benevolent one. But some of those affected are up in arms over what they claim is a lack of consultation and, indeed, any clear information about when they are supposed to be moved, and where. The plan could take up to two decades to fulfill, but all the decisions about it are being made now – mostly behind closed doors."
- Russian language use in post-Soviet space declining precipitously
(EuroMaidan - Paul Goble)
"In Kazakhstan in 1994, 33.7 percent of residents mainly spoke Russian; as of last year, only 20.7 percent do. In Latvia and Estonia, the corresponding figures are 40.5 percent to 29.8 percent and from 33.3 percent to 23.4 percent, while in Ukraine the number declined from 33.9 percent to 24.4 percent."
- The (Hushed Up) Story of Russia’s Trucker Revolt
(Intersection)
"'Hushing up' the protests is evidently more important to those in control than taking steps aimed at resolving the conflict or appeasing the protesters."
- How pro-Kremlin outlets abuse the tragedy of terror
(Disinfo Review)
"In the upside-down world of disinformation-oriented pseudo-media, it is always someone in the West who is responsible for every tragedy of this kind – except when they claim, perversely, that the tragedy never happened and was in fact only staged by evil western governments trying to manipulate their populations."
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