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25 June, 2021

 



Jaanipäev 2021






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COVID in the Baltics 

- 37 in Estonia  (56 last week)
- 125 in Latvia    (108 last week)
- 58 in Lithuania (72 last week)
(BNN - 22. June 2021)

“Koroonaviiruse andmestik.” - Eesti Terviseamet












— Friday 25. June —


Arvamus: Vanalinn on kodu, mitte külastuskeskus
Riina Sikkut, Postimees
“Tallinna ajalooline linnasüda püsib elav ja mitmekesine ainul siis, kui seal päriselt elatakse, kirjutab riigikogu liige Riina Sikkut (SDE).”





Denmark’s renewable #bioenergy from Hiiumaa
(Siim Kuresoo @SiimKuresoo - Twitter)
“Many locals and NGOs are frustrated by expanding clearcuts in either ecologicly significant old growth fragments or just great healthy forests.”

Photo via Twitter



Estonia's Signature Spirit Is So Popular It Was Used As Currency
(Food and Wine)
“The result of ingenuity under occupation, Vana Talinn has transformed from a drink of necessity to a point of national pride.”



Intervjuu: Kaja Kallas
(ERR)
“Arutelu ei tohi minna inetuks, inimesed ei pea haiget saama.”



Europe Must Confront Russia’s Imperialist Creep
(CEPA)
“Europe has to become geopolitical or face increasingly uncertain, dangerous times.”



Poland and the Baltics lead effort to thwart a German-French initiative
(Politico Europe)
“EU leaders early Friday adopted a hardline stance toward Russia — but only after Poland and the Baltic countries took their own hardline stance toward Germany and France and torpedoed a proposal by the bloc’s biggest powers to seek a summit with President Vladimir Putin. The 27 heads of state and government adopted their tough conclusions on Russia at around 2 a.m. following a protracted and, at times, heated debate. The final result was remarkably humbling, if not utterly humiliating, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who normally exert the greatest sway in discussions around the European Council table.”













Germany needs to start showing Central and Eastern Europe more respect
(Politico-Europe
“Why do Germans think they can teach Poles what democracy is?” Wolfgang Schäuble, the president of the German parliament asks …”





EU leaders have taken notice of increased illegal migration from Belarus
(Baltic Times)
“Lithuanian politicians say that Belarus' regime deliberately lets migrants to cross its border with Lithuania as part of a "hybrid war". Around 500 migrants, mostly from Middle East countries, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania this year.” 







— Thursday 24. June —


Kremlin’s Geopolitical Fears Divide Finno-Ugric Peoples
(Jamestown Org.)
“The eighth meeting of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples took place in Tartu, Estonia, on June 16–18. … In 2019, during her visit to Moscow, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid invited Vladimir Putin to the next Finno-Ugric congress in Tartu.”
—
“Putin’s response to the invitation was not publicly announced for two years. The answer came suddenly and with unexpected harshness … In their statement, Russia’s “official Finno-Ugrians” accused Finland, Estonia and Hungary of seeking to “patronize and control” the Finno-Ugric movement, and called the world congresses themselves “an instrument of interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation.”
—
“UNESCO experts confirm this fact: reportedly, all Finno-Ugric languages in Russia are under threat to varying degrees—from “definitely” to “critically”. In fact, the extinction of Finno-Ugric languages in the country is hastened by deliberate Kremlin policies to this effect.”



Kaljulaid: Finno-Ugric language preservation matter of national survival
(ERR, 16. June)
“The world congresses have been building bridges between our peoples for almost 30 years," she added, noting that influence of dominant languages puts the identity and survival of smaller ones at risk and, citing statistics from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to back up her statement.”











June temperature record of 34.6C (94.28F) posted in Narva
(ERR)
“Estonia's absolute all-time high, since records began, of 35.6C (96.08F), was posted on 11. August 1992 in Võru.”






Venemaa kaasmaalaste nõukogu igatseb noort verd
(Propastop)
“Noorte puudumise kohta on hiljuti sõna võtnud Venemaa asevälisminister Andrei Rudenko, kes ütles, et on vaja tegeleda noorte koordinatsioonikogude ja diasporaa teiste noortestruktuuride loomisega. Venemaa huvist kaasata noori kirjutas ka 2021. aasta aastaraamatus Kaitsepolitseiamet: „Kremli  aktivistid Eestis küll räägivad palju noorte kaasamise tähtsusest, kuid ei ole tegelikult huvitatud nende  pealekasvust. Noored aktivistid seaksid ohtu nende sissetulekud, näilise positsiooni kogukonnas ja mõjutaksid töist suhet Venemaa saatkonnaga. Küll aga soositakse oma lähedaste kaasamist Venemaa Föderatsiooniga seotud üritustesse. Põlvkondade vahetust soodustatakse vaid  perekondlikus liinis: vanemate rolli on üle võtmas Öise Vahtkonna endiste aktivistide lapsed.”



Admiral Bellingshausen veetis jaaniöö ristlainete ja vaalasabade keskel
(Postimees)
“Ööl vastu jaanipäeva magasid Kirde-Islandi vetes purjetava «Admiral Bellingshauseni» peal vähesed. Kella nelja-viie paiku hommikul muutus lõputus polaarpäevas laine, olgugi et mitte kõrge, sedavõrd teravaks, et mere vali ja nõudlik prõmmimine käis läbi kogu laeva.”



European Parliament declares abortion access a human right
(Politico-Europe)
“The resolution urges EU countries to recognize that any interference with access to contraception, fertility treatment, maternity care and abortion “constitute breaches of human rights.” It implores countries to “condemn any attempt to limit access” to these services. The measure passed with 378 MEPs voting in favor and 255 voting against.”








— Wednesday 23. June —


Eesti peaminister hoiatas läänt Covidi mõjul tekkinud autoritaarsuse eest
(Ärileht)
“Peaminister ütles, et mõned valitsused on liikunud inimeste õiguste laiema piiramise suunas. “Isegi, kui hetkel pole epidemioloogilisi põhjuseid, ei anta inimestele vabadusi tagasi, sest nii on mugavam,” ütles ta. Veel kritiseeris peaminister suuremate EL-i liikmesriikide, sealhulgas Saksamaa ja Prantsusmaa samme, millega kehtestati pandeemia alguses isikukaitsevahenditele ekspordikeeld. "Need piirangud tulid kiiresti, ei kusagilt. Olen mures, et piirangud tulevad kriisi ajal liiga kergesti.”


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- Võidupüha 2021 -












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Estonian PM warns west of damage from ‘Covid-induced authoritarianism’
(Financial Times)
“Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times she was afraid that some countries had been slow to relax restrictions on free movement of people and goods, even as vaccination rates increased. “What we have seen in this Covid crisis, this urge for a strong hand or an authoritarian way of governing is deep in our societies, even in some countries you would never believe.”



NATO planes scrambled eight times last week in response to Russia flights
(ERR)
“… with Russian activity particularly frenetic on June 15-17.”



Opinion: Estonian interests in the Arctic
(ERR)
“The Arctic or the circumpolar region is shared by eight countries that have direct interests in everything that it is and can offer. However, global interest in the region has been around for some time. It is little wonder then that Estonia is no exception. …”








Estonia’s GDP per capital increased to 86% of the EU average wealth level
(BNE)
“Lithuania’s GDP per capita rose to 87% of the EU average, marking the steepest (26pp) advance over the past decade. … Latvia rose to 72%.”
https://www.intellinews.com/romania-in-line-with-the-baltic-states-as-fastest-converging-eu-members-213804/



Estonia to help Lithuanians guard Eastern border
(BNN)
“Lithuanian authorities have spoken about a a big increase in the number of migrants trying to illegally enter the EU via the Lithuanian border from Belarus …”



Estonia among 13 EU countries that blasts Hungarian anti-LGBTQ+ measures
(Politico)
“The 13 countries issued their unusually strongly-worded rebuke during an EU ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on the state of the rule of law in Hungary, where a broad array of concerns — from the independence of the judiciary to media freedoms — was discussed.”




Europeans are losing faith in the EU. Brussels must win them back
(Euronews)
“A new survey published this month by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), in partnership with YouGov and Datapraxis, revealed that a majority of Europeans have now lost faith in the EU and its ability to respond effectively in the face of major crises. In many of the bloc’s leading member states, including Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Austria, the picture is stark: a majority believe that the European project is “broken”, in the context of Covid-19, and want a more unified European response to global issues – as well as a stronger stand against Chinese, Russian and Turkish violations of international law.”








— Russia | Belarus —


Moscow has no intention of refraining from belligerent activities close to NATO’s eastern flank
(Warsaw Institute)
“A pair of Russian Su-24s had breached NATO’s airspace a day before the U.S. and Russian leaders met in Geneva. According to Lithuanian officials, the Russian planes flew one kilometer into Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic Sea, where they spent about one minute. … Also on June 15, two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers flew over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, putting NATO air forces on alert. The flight of the missile carriers, accompanied by Russia’s Su-35S and Su-27 fighters, took eight hours.”



The Pillage of Annexed Crimea
(CEPA)
“Rapid deforestation has been severe in Russia (as Novaya Gazeta has already recently documented). Now, it is fast becoming a new norm for the Ukrainian peninsula.”





Putin’s Satisfaction With Geneva Summit Will Not Last
(Jamestown Org.)
“Expectations regarding the summit between Presidents Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva last Wednesday (June 16) were set quite low, but the media hype was considerable—and both suited the Russian leader just fine.”



Putin and Lukashenko Are Reluctant Authoritarian ‘Bros’
(Foreign Policy)
“The rift with the EU has left Belarus at the mercy of Moscow.”



The Courageous Women of Minsk
(Spiegel)
“Belarus may have receded from the headlines, but the opposition's fight continues. Five women discuss their struggle in a forest near Minsk – a site chosen to evade Lukashenko's thugs.”



The lawsuit brought against author Catherine Belton by Russian oligarchs: a red alert for Europe
(Desk Russie)
“Catherine Belton is a British investigative journalist, long-time Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times, and author of Putin’s People. How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West, published in 2020.  … The book narrates not only Putin’s irresistible attention, the blindness of those who could and should have opposed him and later regretted it, but above all the links, suggested or proven, of the system he built around him and organized crime.”



Checking the thermometers
(Riddle)
“Lyubov Glazunova on whether the battle against global warming can bring Russia and the West closer together.”



__________
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Posted by at

18 June, 2021

 


US Special Forces operating in 

Estonia at higher level than ever before

(ERR)

“It's not extremely important the number of personnel, 

so much as what they are bringing with them. This contingent doesn't 

bring just a backpack of grenades, but also Tomahawk cruise missiles.”

https://news.err.ee/1608251343/us-special-forces-operating-in-estonia-at-higher-level-than-ever-before



“USA eriväelased tegutsevad Eestis kõrgemal tasemel kui varem.” - Postimees



_______________



COVID infection rates 

in the Baltics 


- 56 in Estonia  ⬆️ (54 last week)

- 108 in Latvia    ⬇️ (178 last week)

- 72 in Lithuania ⬇️ (155 last week)

(BNN)

https://bnn-news.com/latest-covid-19-cases-in-baltics-108-in-latvia-72-in-lithuania-56-in-estonia-225878



“Koroonaviiruse andmestik.” - Eesti Terviseamet


“Viirus taandub: reoveeuuringu kaart on valdavalt roheline.” - Novaator


“Estonia's infection rate - R - has continued to fall and this week measures at 0.7 compared to 0.74 a week ago.” - ERR


“Finland to loosen border restrictions on Monday.” - Yle


“Finland to relax rules on work travel from Estonia, Norway and Sweden.” - Helsinki Times


“Moscow introduces mandatory coronavirus vaccination.” - BNE


“EU set to lift entry restrictions for all US travelers.” - Deutsche Welle



_______________





— Friday 18. June —




Sillamäe radioaktiivsete jäätmete hoidla - väärtuslike maavarade minevik, tulevik, olevik

Anna-Maria Sepp

Ypsilon

“Hoidlasse on maetud ligi 12 miljonit tonni uraanitootmise jääke ja põlevkivituhka, mida on sinna ladustatud alates uraanitehase Kombinaat 7 käikulaskmisest möödunud sajandi keskpaigal. Kuna sel perioodil toodeti Sillamäel pea kogu Nõukogude Liidus kasutatud uraan, siis paiknevad hoidlas jäägid ka sellest uraanist, millest valmistati Nõukogude Liidu esimesed tuumapommid.”

https://www.ypsilon.ee/7272489/sillamae-radioaktiivsete-jaatmete-hoidla-vaartuslike-maavarade-minevik-tulevik-olevik



Sillamäe’s toxic and radioactive waste storage facility

“Nearly 12 million tons of uranium production residues and oil shale ash, which have been stored there since the commissioning of the uranium plant Kombinat 7 in the middle of the last century, have been buried in the storage facility. Since almost all the uranium used in the Soviet Union was produced in Sillamäe during this period, the repository also contains the uranium from which the first nuclear bombs of the Soviet Union were made.” - translated from the above Ypsilon article




Keegi pole metsanduse arengukavaga rahul - üks pool tahab kaitsealade, teine raie vähendamist

Ülle Harju

Postimees

“Metsanduse arengukava (MAK2030) juhtkogu analüüsis eile ettepanekuid, mida tehti seinast seina: looduskaitsjad soovivad raiemahu vähendamist vähemalt kolmandiku, puidutöösturid aga rangelt kaitstava metsa vähendamist poole võrra.”

https://www.postimees.ee/7273980/keegi-pole-metsanduse-arengukavaga-rahul-uks-pool-tahab-kaitsealade-teine-raie-vahendamist




UK Likely Complicit in Harming Estonia’s Nature Reserves

(Natural Resources Defense Council)

“Logging in Estonia is destroying the country’s forests. And part of the blame may lay squarely on the UK, which is one of the main importers of wood from Estonia to burn as fuel for electricity in industrial scale power stations, producing bioenergy.”

—

“Clearcutting is the dominant logging method in Estonia, used in 95% of total felling. And logging, in part for biomass, is contributing to the devastation of some of the world’s most precious conservation areas.  Between 2001 and 2019, Estonia’s Natura 2000 areas lost an area more than twice the size of Manhattan, due in part to demand for biomass.”

—

“Investigations show that companies like Graanul Invest—Europe’s biggest pellet producer—and its subsidiaries (including Valga Puu), have clearcut large areas (read 17 football fields) of forests in both Estonia’s Haanja and Otepää nature reserves. Estonian NGOs also report that industry actively lobbies for the weakening of Estonian regulations protecting these reserves.”

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/elly-pepper/uk-likely-complicit-harming-estonias-nature-reserves



Infographic from the Graanul Invest website



Leedus hakkas tööle põgenikelaager

(ERR)

“Leedu võimud paigutasid äsja püstitatud põgenikelaagrisse esimesed Valgevenest saabunud illegaalsed immigrandid, valdavalt Iraagi kodanikud. Pabrade lähistele rajatud laagris on 73 migranti, kellest 27 on karantiinis, vahendas Leedu rahvusringhääling piirivalve pressiesindajat Giedrius Mišutist. Valdav osa laagri asukaid on üksikud mehed. Uudisteagentuur BNS teatas neljapäeval, et üle Valgevene piiri on sel aastal ebaseaduslikult Leetu saabunud 405 sisserändajat.”

https://www.err.ee/1608251745/leedus-hakkas-toole-pogenikelaager




Estonia: global leader on all things cyber

(CNN Business)

“Now it's offering to teach cyber defense to other countries.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/18/tech/estonia-cyber-security-lessons-intl-cmd/index.html










— Thursday 17. June —




Kadri Liik: Bideni ettekujutus Venemaast on väga adekvaatne

(ERR)

“… ja tema meeskond Venemaa küsimustes on üle aegade parim. Liik märkis, et Balti riikide julgeolekule on hea, kui USA ja Venemaa ei ole kokkupõrkekursil ning selles osas andis Bideni ja Putini tippkohtumine lootusrikkaid signaale.”

https://www.err.ee/1608250650/liik-bideni-ettekujutus-venemaast-on-vaga-adekvaatne



“Summit Again Showed US Far More Important for Russia than Russia is for US.” - by Paul Goble


“A Brief Dictionary of Putin Newspeak (14 terms)” - Window on Eurasia




Podcast: 80 aastat 1941. aasta küüditamisest

(Postimees)

“Saatejuht ja saate lavastaja on Merle Karusoo.”

https://kuula.postimees.ee/7274514/80-aastat-1941-aasta-kuuditamisest#_ga=2.226831637.946120409.1623862077-17610518.1623280166




80th anniversary of

14. June deportations

(ERR)

“The day's solemnities commemorate the events of the night of June 14 1941, by which time Estonia was fully under Soviet occupation and which saw around 10,000 civilians of all ages deported deep into Soviet territory – generally meaning the Siberian Gulag system. Around 6,000 of those deported, including children, never returned.”

https://news.err.ee/1608245508/gallery-estonia-marks-june-14-deportations-80th-anniversary

—

https://news.err.ee/1608245709/estonian-composer-s-work-performed-on-june-14-deportation-80th-anniversary




Telling The Story Of Siberian Estonians

By Anu Korb

Estonian Literary Museum

“… for Estonians Siberia was primarily associated with cold and wilderness, the deportations of the 1940s and prison camps. There was a lack of awareness about the Estonians who had emigrated there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and about the ones who were deported there during the tsarist rule.”

—

“According to the 1989 census in Russia, there were 17,000 Estonians living in Siberia. This figure includes the ones who lived in large cities, in Russian villages, and elsewhere. In the course of our fieldwork in Siberian rural areas (from Omsk oblast to Krasnoyarsk kray) we found about 40 Estonian communities with a population ranging between 25 and 300, with the majority of population having reached a respectable age. Relatively few villages were left where Estonian was spoken, with Estonians generally constituting just one ethnic segment of a multi-ethnic village. There were Siberian Estonians’ villages where little was known about life in Estonia and contacts with the relatives living in Estonia were sparse or broken (e.g. Ryzhkovo, Nikolayevka, Khaydak), yet many Siberian villages had had close ties with Estonia during the Soviet era (e.g. Verkhniy Suetuk, Berezovka, Zolotaya Niva). …”

http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol78/korb.pdf

Or

https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2020.78.korb




Estonia Reports Russian Planes Violated Its Airspace in vicinity of Hiiumaa

(Military.com)

“Two Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighters entered the Baltic country's airspace in the vicinity of Hiiumaa, a Baltic Sea island belonging to Estonia, without permission and spent less than one minute there Tuesday morning, Estonia’s military said in a statement. It added that the transponders on the Russian planes weren’t switched on, they hadn’t filed a flight plan and there was no two-way radio communication with the Estonian air traffic service.”

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/16/estonia-says-russian-planes-violate-its-airspace-again.html




Leaked phone call reveals potential partnership between Israel and Estonia

(New Eastern Europe)

“The ‘start-up nation’ and ‘e-Estonia’ have much in common when it comes to digital innovation, cybersecurity and their identities.”

https://neweasterneurope.eu/2021/06/18/a-leaked-phone-call-reveals-the-potential-partnership-israel-and-estonia-could-establish/




Arvamus: Eesti rahvas ei vaja EKREt

Kaimar Karu

Postimees

“Ainus, mille eest EKRE täna seisab, on võimuiha …”

https://arvamus.postimees.ee/7274300/kaimar-karu-eesti-rahvas-ei-vaja-ekret#_ga=2.259254146.946120409.1623862077-17610518.1623280166



“Politics: Support for Reform and EKRE almost equal.” - ERR




Moscow Again Urged to Play Latgal Card against Riga

By Paul Goble

“Off and on over the last century, Russian governments have presented themselves as defenders of the Russian Orthodox Latgal nation in eastern Latvia against Riga’s efforts to unite what Latvians see as a subgroup of their own community into a modern Latvian nation. Now, Aleksandr Filey, a commentator for the pro-Russian RuBaltic portal, has taken up their cudgels on their behalf, denouncing Riga for promoting Latvian language and recalling how much the Russian state has done for the Latgals.”

http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/moscow-again-urged-to-play-latgal-card.html




Germany withdraws platoon from Nato mission in Lithuania

(BBC)

“… after reports emerged of troops engaging in racist and anti-Semitic behaviour, as well as sexual assault. … Separate allegations later emerged of sexual and racial abuse within the platoon, while some soldiers reported that a number of people sang a song to mark Adolf Hitler's birthday on 20 April, according to Der Spiegel.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57487869



“Verteidigungsministerin zieht mehr Soldaten aus Litauen ab.” - Der Spiegel


“30 German soldiers headed home from Lithuania.” - Deutsche Welle




Soome avab esmaspäevast piirid töörändele ja turismile

(Postimees)

“Soome valitsus otsustas neljapäeval anda loa töörändeks Euroopa Liidu ja Schengeni riikidest alates esmaspäevast, 21. juunist.”

https://majandus.postimees.ee/7274532/soome-avab-esmaspaevast-piirid-toorandele-ja-turismile#_ga=2.230352788.946120409.1623862077-17610518.1623280166



“Soome valitsus otsustas avada piirid töörändele ja turistidele.” - ERR




NATO Membership For Ukraine Would Be 'Red Line,' Kremlin Says

(RFERL)

“… after U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first summit in Geneva.”

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-nato-red-line/31312756.html







— Wednesday 16. June —




President Biden met leaders of the Baltic countries at the NATO Summit

White House press briefing

“On the margins of the NATO Summit, (President Biden) had the opportunity to meet with the leaders of the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. And he got the chance to discuss with them and coordinate with them in advance of his meeting with Putin on Wednesday to talk about the threat that Russia poses to NATO’s eastern flank, to talk about common commitment to Article 5 and collective defense, to coordinate on the resilience of those states in the face of multiple dimensions of the threat posed by Russia — from cyber, to provocative military exercises on their borders, to information warfare. He was able to communicate to them what he has communicated publicly, which is that the United States seeks a stable and constructive relationship with Russia, but also will respond in the face of Russia’s harmful activities and will always stand up for NATO Allies.”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/06/14/background-press-call-by-a-senior-administration-official-on-president-bidens-engagements-at-nato-summit/



“The Brussels Summit Communiqué.” - NATO press release, 14. June




Documentary about Estonia’s former Patarei prison premiered in Tallinn

By Silver Tambur

Estonian World

“The film takes the viewer on a journey back in time to when Patarei was still a sea fortress. In the 20th century, the building was used as a prison, where totalitarian regimes imprisoned thousands of innocent people. The documentary focuses on the background and hardships of prisoners of conscience, who were confined by the walls of the sea fortress.”

https://estonianworld.com/culture/a-new-documentary-about-estonias-former-patarei-prison-premieres-in-tallinn/




Energy policy in the Baltic states

(PV Magazine)

“At the end of 2020, the three Baltic states had a cumulative installed PV capacity of 800 MW. More than three-quarters of this has been installed in Estonia. Lithuania accounts for around one-fifth, while installations in Latvia are negligible. The need to replace conventional power plants that were recently closed or are to be phased out partly explains the higher motivation for Estonia and Lithuania to expand the use of solar energy. As one of the EU member states with the highest per capita CO2 emissions, Estonia is being urged by the European Union to reduce its use of shale oil – the largest power generation source in the country. The planned closure of old shale oil facilities is incentivizing increased use of renewables.”

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/06/15/pv-policy-developments-in-the-baltic-states/




Joe Biden Just Had a Summit with Vladimir Putin and Nothing Crazy Happened

By Susan B. Glasser

The New Yorker

“The triumph of Geneva is that it was not Helsinki.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/joe-biden-just-had-a-summit-with-vladimir-putin-and-nothing-crazy-happened




Takeaways From the Biden-Putin Summit Meeting 

(Foreign Policy)

“Moscow and Washington have turned a page from the Trump era. … Biden’s meeting with Putin took place almost three years after the now infamous summit in Helsinki, Finland, where then-U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Putin over his own intelligence agencies on the question of alleged election interference. Trump’s top Russia advisor, Fiona Hill, would later admit she considered pulling a fire alarm or faking a medical emergency just to bring it to an end.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/16/biden-putin-summit-takeaways-cybersecurity-nuclear-energy-ambassadors-prisoner-exchange/



“Putin: Venemaa on valmis USA-ga dialoogi jätkama.” - Postimees


“Putin praises summit result, calls Biden a tough negotiator.” - AP


“Biden is a professional, you have to be very attentive when working with him so as not to miss something — because he does not miss a thing, trust me,” Putin added.”  - The Moscow Times


“Moscow Commentators Celebrate That Biden Sees Russia as a Great Power.” - New York Times


“Niinistö: Russia-US summit unlikely to help Navalny's situation.” - Yle


“Putin: You think we're the unpredictable ones?” - BBC


“Five hours for meetings were scheduled - the leaders called it a day after only three hours.” - BNE


“Putin's Russia and the U.S.: A toxic couple seeks to co-exist.” - CBC


“Russia must now be considered in the context of other priorities, rather than existing in an independent sphere.” - National Interest


“Putin's Performance At Geneva Summit Seen As A Master Class In ‘Whataboutism’.” - RFERL


“Analysis: Biden talks down Russia, spurs allies in bid to back Putin into a corner.” - Reuters




Ukrainian defense firms are being purchased by China. That bodes ill for the would-be NATO member

(Foreign Policy)

“The Ukrainians have a world-class military and security apparatus,” said one former U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s a ripe target for the Chinese to try and go in and garner control of.” China is also looking into purchasing a handful of lower-level Ukrainian defense logistics companies, U.S. officials said. 

“It’s more malleable; they have more leverage in that area,” the former defense official said of Chinese efforts in Ukraine. “Establishing a beachhead there is important to them. … Chinese interest in the Ukrainian defense industry is also part of a delicate dance Beijing is playing in its relationship with Russia.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/16/biden-ukraine-china-russia-defense-policy-weapons-spending/






— Russia —


Russia hits ‘herd hostility’ to vaccines as COVID rages

(BNE)

“Russia has endured almost 18 months of the coronavirus with nearly 5.1mn officially confirmed cases and more than 120,000 deaths. The country’s total excess fatality count, regarded as a much more reliable indicator of the human cost, stands at a staggering total of 460,000 deaths.”

—

“However, distrust of Russia’s vaccines has mutated wildly in the zeitgeist by people regurgitating half-baked conspiracy theories. A survey by independent pollsters the Levada Centre in May indicated 62% of Russians are unwilling to get vaccinated, while 55% are not afraid of contracting the virus.”

https://www.intellinews.com/russia-hits-herd-hostility-to-vaccines-as-covid-rages-213226/




The ‘People of the Soil’ Have Won

By Anna Nemtsova

The Atlantic

“The common misconception about Russia is that Putin controls all, sees all, knows all. He doesn’t. His has been a regime reliant on the buy-in of interest groups, oligarchs, and powerful clans within law-enforcement agencies. Behind the scenes, decision makers from among the siloviki and the technocrats have battled it out as analysts have sought to guess who has been on top and how deeply tensions have run. Putin is no liberal, but he himself has described his government as divided between “Westernizers” and “people of the soil.” … Not any longer. The people of the soil have won. They monopolize nearly every aspect of Putin’s government and are enforcing their will—his will—on Russian society in a way that was previously unimaginable.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/06/joe-biden-vladimir-putin/619209/




Operation Barbarossa

80th Anniversary 

June 22, 1941

(BNE)

“Stalin was the only person in the world taken aback by the largest invasion force ever assembled, an army of three million men. Everyone else saw it coming – literally. His misplaced confidence that the fellow signatories of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact would honour the non-aggression agreement meant he disregarded the unignorable evidence and teeming intelligence that a large-scale offensive was imminent. Stalin’s paranoia prevented him from seeing what was before his very eyes. His astonishing naivety and resultant lack of preparedness guaranteed that the blood sacrifice required to oppose and eventually defeat Operation Barbarossa was stupefying in dimension and mostly unnecessary.”

—

“The Soviet Union’s ultimate triumph over Nazism now forms the founding myth of Putin’s Russia. It is the event most central to its history and most germane to the nationalism Putin fosters to prop up his crypto-fascist regime. It provides a licence for Russia’s foreign policy. Propagating this cult of the Great Patriotic War, though, demands that its followers ignore some uncomfortable truths. Namely, that Stalin’s omni-incompetence and a pitiless indifference to fatalities (in this, he matched Hitler) contributed hugely to the staggering 27 million deaths suffered by the Soviet Union in the conflict. In October 1941, with the German panzers almost at the gates of Moscow, Stalin was pretty much throwing his troops under enemy tanks to stop their advance while his NKVD machine-gunned those who, understandably, ran in the opposite direction. Incontrovertibly, the Soviet Union can claim it paid the highest price for the Allied victory in 1945. It was the Pyrrhic victory ne plus ultra. Worse still, the victory, such as it was, ensured that Stalin remained in power for another eight extremely damaging and suffocating years. …”

https://www.intellinews.com/rimmer-unhappy-anniversary-operation-barbarossa-213222/





Barbarossa - biggest invasion in history

(Military History Org.)

“Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia, evolved from General Marcks’ plan of August 1940, which prioritised the destruction of the bulk of the Red Army in Belorussia (modern Belarus) and the capture of Moscow. This plan was heavily amended in successive studies, with Hitler downgrading the importance of taking Moscow in favour of capturing Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and the Ukraine.”

—

 “Army Group North was to advance from East Prussia through the Baltic States and join with the Finns to take Leningrad.”

https://www.military-history.org/cover-feature/barbarossa-the-biggest-invasion-in-history.htm




Nazi invasion of Soviet Union was 'murderous barbarity’

(Deutsche Welle)

“Commemorating the upcoming 80th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, German President Steinmeier said the suffering of the former Soviet people should be "burned into Germany's collective memory.”

https://www.dw.com/en/nazi-invasion-of-soviet-union-was-murderous-barbarity/a-57947672



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