'Как нам реорганизовать Прибалтику’
or:
"How We Will Reorganize the Baltic Region”
- It looked like just another silly Russian-language propaganda article. But this time, using Google Translate, I saw it was a long article with a very high amount of detail - charts, maps, and so on, concerning all three of the Baltic States. Read like a how-to guide.
Since my knowledge of Russian barely goes beyond ‘Niet’ and ‘Gulag’, I contacted Russia expert Paul Goble via email - his excellent analysis of this latest Russian propaganda threatening the Baltic States is a must-read:
✔︎ Moscow Outlet Describes How Russia Should Break Up Each of the Baltic Countries
(by Paul Goble)
"Arguing that the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are more russophobic than any other nation in the world, the Russian propaganda site, SputnikPogrom, outlines how Moscow must work to split up the three countries into smaller units dominated by ethnic and linguistic minorities to put them on course for reabsorption into a Russian empire. … The 3500-word unsigned article entitled “How We Will Reorganize the Baltic Region” is one of the most detailed offerings of its kind (my underlining), something intended to support Moscow’s claim that the three Baltic countries are not full-fledged states and to sow fear and division in each of them."
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“… clearly there are many in Moscow who have been thinking long and hard about how to break up three NATO member countries by using soft power and other means.”
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Please read his analysis here:
- Original: 'Как нам реорганизовать Прибалтику'
(Sputnik Pogrom)
- Blog:
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Friday 24. March
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- Interview: President Kersti Kaljulaid
‘Russia is a threat’: Estonia frets about its neighbor
(Washington Post)
- USA Venemaale: NATO kaitseb oma liikmesriike
(ERR)
- USA kindral: Moskva heidutamiseks tuleb kohalolekut Euroopas tõhustada
(ERR)
✔︎ Eesti metsi pole kunagi nii intensiivselt raiutud kui praegu
(Postimees)
- Buy a house in Estonia in 3 days and 6 lessons
(Estonian World)
[A 36-year-old Frenchwoman explains how she bought her Põlvamaa home.]
- Real estate prices show slower growth in 2016
(ERR)
- Interview: Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser
(NPR Washington)
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Thursday 23. March
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✔︎ Hearing on U.S. Policy toward the Baltic States
(US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs)
Edward Lucas’ Testimony
(CEPA)
Excerpt:"I believe that the Baltic states are the keystones of the European security order. If they fall victim to Russian pressure, be it military, economic or political, then the rules-based system which the United States has established and defended in Europe for more than six decades is over. …”
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In the 1990s, a time when Vladimir Putin was still an obscure official in St Petersburg, public figures such as Václav Havel of the Czech Republic, the former Estonia president Lennart Meri, and Vytautas Landsbergis, who masterminded Lithuania’s independence, all warned the West that Russia was heading in the wrong direction.”
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"They warned us of the decay of democratic life there, of election-rigging, of the resurgence of the old KGB, and of the growth of kleptocracy. They also warned us that Russia had not abandoned its arrogant, unrepentant imperialist attitudes towards the former captive nations of eastern Europe. They warned us about Russia’s toxic cocktail of money, propaganda and force, and its use of espionage to find targets and exploit weaknesses. They warned us that though Russia was still economically weak back then, times would change, and trouble was on its way—not only for them, but for us.
We in the West did not just ignore those warnings. We patronized and belittled the brave men and women who delivered them. Now the warnings have been vindicated. The Baltic states, before and after their accession to NATO, have suffered repeated economic sanctions, military pressure and subversion. We in the “old” West have seen Russian mischief-making in the heart of our political systems.”
Read more:
https://cepa.ecms.pl/files/?id_plik=3425
Paul Goble's Testimony:
(Window on Eurasia)
Excerpt:“… there are many things we should be doing to promote Baltic security that have nothing to do with NATO or our own military. Let me suggest just three:
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First of all, we should encourage the three countries to complete the integration of the ethnic minorities in their countries as rapidly as possible so that Moscow will not be able to use that as a wedge issue to divide them."
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"Second, we should promote transparency of all economic and political activities in the three and especially work to promote Internet security on which the economies and polities of the three increasingly depend. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have taken giant steps in this direction but they need our help. Ensuring transparency of economic and political activity and guaranteeing computer security in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are almost certainly more important than putting more troops on the ground.
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"And third, we should promote in every possible way conversations between the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian government and society with their opposite numbers in Russia. That is doubly important: These countries can’t afford to be in a hostile relationship with Moscow forever …"
Read more:
Lisa Sawyer Samp's Testimony
(Center for Strategic and International Studies)
Excerpt:"Despite their small size, the Baltic militaries have been able to cultivate niche specialties that add valuable capabilities to the NATO alliance. For example, Estonia has emerged as a leadingmember of the alliance in terms of cyber defense, Latvia has developed a strong capability in joint terminal attack controllers and explosive ordnance disposal, and Lithuania has robust special operations forces. Estonia is also one of only five NATO allies that meet the
recommended two percent of GDP defense spending target ($497 million in 2016), with Latvia and Lithuania on track to meet the goal by 2018. All three countries have sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan."
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"Even with these investments, however, the Baltic States' size, limited military capabilities, and geographic proximity to Russia will keep them almost entirely dependent on the United States and NATO for their national defense in a conventional conflict—a fact which they publicly acknowledge.”
Read more:
Matthew Rojansky's Testimony
(Kennan Institute, Wilson Center)
Excerpt: "Russia has both broad and deep ties with the Baltic States, especially with the region’s commercial hubs, such as Latvia’s capital Riga, and with heavily ethnic Russian enclaves, such as Narva in Estonia. Russian experts describe their interests in the Baltic States as diverse and varied, but they identify three common elements. First, they acknowledge fears about U.S. foreign policy objectives in the region—fears which have been magnified by the increased U.S. and NATO attention to the region. Second, they seek to maintain a stable status quo in political and economic relations, including clearly demarcated borders, unimpeded access to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and restoration of modest but important trade ties with each of the Baltic States, which have been constrained by E.U. sanctions following the Ukraine crisis and Russian counter- sanctions.”
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"The third significant Russian interest in the Baltic States—asserting the right to protect Russian speakers abroad—is a source of acute concern. In 2008, then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed a sphere of “privileged” influence around Russia’s borders, which many understood to include the Baltic region, while a major theme of Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term, since 2012, has been championing the interests of the so- called “Russian World,” including his assertion that some 25 million ethnic Russians were left outside Russia’s borders when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. In the run- up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and afterward, Russian officials have talked of the need to protect Russian speakers outside Russia, including in the Baltic States.”
Read more:
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The Russian Laundromat
Beneficiaries in Estonia received $1.6 billion
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- The “Russian Laundromat” Exposed
(OCCRP)
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- Stolen Russian billions ended up in EU states
(EU Observer | Baltic Times)
"Beneficiaries in Estonia received $1.6 billion out of a total of some $20 billion uncovered in the money trail by journalists in the OCCRP, a club of investigative reporters in eastern Europe, and Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent media in Russia.”
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Some $900 million of the funds ended up in Cyprus, $78 million in Lithuania, $68 million in the Netherlands, $64 million in Germany, and $44 million in Denmark … Czech Republic ($38mn), Italy ($32mn), the UK ($29mn), Finland ($26mn), Hungary ($25mn), Slovenia ($15mn), Poland ($10mn), Luxembourg ($6mn), France ($6mn), Austria ($5mn), Belgium ($5mn), Slovakia ($5mn), and Spain ($4mn) also received funds."
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- Money from Moldova disappeared in North Tallinn
(Postimees)
- Eesti pankade kaudu pesti hiiglaslik kogus raha
(Postimees)
- Putin’s ‘Secret Weapon’ Against the West – Massive Illegal Cash Hordes in Foreign Countries
(Window on Eurasia)
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- Off Topic -
"Russian Bots Running Amok"
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✔︎ The FBI’s Russian-influence probe
(McClatchy DC Bureau)
"Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media [Facebook, Twitter, etc] with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said."
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"The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bot attacks are part of an FBI-led investigation into a multifaceted Russian operation to influence last year’s elections.”
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"Russia-generated bots are one piece of a cyber puzzle that counterintelligence agents have sought to solve for nearly a year to determine the extent of the Moscow government’s electronic broadside.”
Read more:
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✔︎ Russia Continues Info-War Tactics In US
(MSNBC via YouTube)
“The Kremlin was bragging last year (February 2016) about having a new nuclear-level information warfare capability…”
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✔︎ Russia’s radical strategy for information warfare
(Washington Post - by David Ignatius)
Kremlin adviser Andrey Krutskikh made these comments at a Russian national information security forum in February of 2016:
“You think we are living in 2016. No, we are living in 1948. And do you know why? Because in 1949, the Soviet Union had its first atomic bomb test. And if until that moment, the Soviet Union was trying to reach agreement with Truman to ban nuclear weapons, and the Americans were not taking us seriously, in 1949 everything changed and they started talking to us on an equal footing.”
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“I’m warning you: We are at the verge of having ‘something’ in the information arena, which will allow us to talk to the Americans as equals.”
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Monday 20. March
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- Raadiosaade: Euroopa Liidu tulevik
(Vikerraadio)
"Laupäeval, 25. märtsil tähistame Rooma lepingu 60. aastapäeva …"
- Opinion: How can Estonia shed its reputation as a frontline state?
(ERR)
- Estonia’s mission could revolutionize space travel
(Estonian World)
"ESTCube-2 is planned to blast off in 2019 and will operate at approximately 680 kilometres (423 miles) above Earth, which is almost twice as high as the International Space Station."
- Eestlased kosmosesse: ESTCube-2
(Hooandja)
- ESTCube-2 mission and satellite design
(Tartu Observatory | ResearchGate)
- Estonia has 1.3 million people: Here's how it plans to get 10 million e-residents by 2025
(ZDNet)
- Freedom of religion under threat across Europe after EU court rules employers can ban headscarves
(The Conversation)
- Lithuania’s pro-Kremlin media calls the United States an “aggressor” and Russia “a besieged fortress”
(CEPA)
"According to Russian military doctrine, information confrontation is an essential aspect of warfare. … the importance of non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases has exceeded the power of weapons in their effectiveness. It is not yet clear whether the current Kremlin disinformation campaign will shape public opinion in Lithuania and the Baltic states, though it is likely to continue as Zapad 2017 approaches."
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- Russia -
"Trust No One"
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✔︎ Exposed: Soviet cover-up of nuclear fallout from nuclear bomb tests worse than Chernobyl
(New Scientist)
"More nuclear bomb tests were conducted at Semipalatinsk than anywhere else in the world during the 1950s and early 1960s. Western journalists have reported since the breakup of the Soviet Union on the apparent health effects on villagers downwind of the tests. And some recent studies have estimated radiation doses using proxies such as radioactivity in tooth enamel."
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"The newly revealed report, which outlines “the results of a radiological study of Semipalatinsk region” and is marked “top secret”, shows for the first time just how much Soviet scientists knew at the time about the human-health disaster and the extent of the cover-up.”
Read more:
✔︎ Salastatud raportist selgub, kuidas Nõukogude võim tuumakatsetuste ohvreid varjas
(Postimees)
✔︎ Semipalatinsk nuclear testing: The humanitarian consequences
(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
- Report dated February 2014 -
"From 1949 until the site was closed in 1991, the Soviet Union carried out more than 450 nuclear detonations at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (SNTS) in Kazakhstan. More than 110 of the tests were conducted in the air and on the surface of the earth. Over one million people have been recognized by the government of Kazakhstan as having suffered (in a broad sense) from the SNTS.”
Read more:
- Fascinating claim: 7,000 underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
(Siberian Times)
"A number of large craters ... have appeared on the landscape in northern Siberia in recent years … evidently caused by eruptions or explosions of methane gas which has melted below the surface. The Yamal craters, some tiny but others large, were created by natural gas filling vacant space in ice humps, eventually triggering eruptions."
- How a rugged Soviet relic became one of the car industry’s most iconic survivors
(The Conversation - 24. Feb.)
- Kremlin critic Denis Voronenkov killed in Kyiv
(Deutsche Welle | RFERL | Washington Post)
"He was a key witness in a case against Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's former prime minister and later president, who fled to Russia in 2014. No details of his testimony have been released, but Ukrainian state prosecutor Yuri Lutsenko had described it as valuable. Voronenkov was due to testify again on Thursday."
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- Russian Lawyer Thrown From Window Was a Witness for the U.S. Government
(The Daily Beast)
"A lawyer connected to murdered Putin foe Sergei Magnitsky has been thrown from a window in Moscow."
- Ten critics of Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways
(Washington Post)
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