✔︎ In 1917 Estonians held a demonstration in St Petersburg in support of the self-governing autonomy for their country. The 100th-year anniversary of that march is Saturday.
✔︎ Eesti kultuuripäevad New Yorgis: 5. aprill - 9. aprill
✔︎ Lääneranniku Eesti Päevad 2017: 31. augustist – 4. septembrini UCLA Campus, Los Angeles, California
- Foto:
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Friday 7. April
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✔︎ Celebrations in St Petersburg mark 100 years from the demonstration of Estonians
(Estonian World)
"On 8. April 1917, 40,000 Estonians held a demonstration in St Petersburg in support of the self-governing autonomy for their country. Estonians started marching at the St John’s Church and headed towards the Tauride Palace, which housed the Russian Provisional Government. The peaceful protest achieved its goal four days after the demonstration, on 12 April 1917, when the Provisional Government issued an order on the provisional autonomy of Estonia. …"
- Discussing Identity and Minorities in an Estonian Border City
(Deep Baltic)
“… a transcript from a roundtable discussion on the subject of “being a minority in a small country”, held 23. March 2017 in Narva …”
- Kaljulaid hiidlaste vastuseisust meretuulepargile: ma ei suuda seda väga hästi mõista
(Postimees)
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- Tiny Baltic state Estonia plans big plunge into wind power
(Deutsche Welle | BNN)
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- EU: Tighter security checks could cause longer waits on Schengen borders
(Politico-Europe)
http://www.politico.eu/article/tighter-security-checks-could-cause-longer-waits-on-schengen-borders/
- Railway hiking trails to connect Latvia and Estonia
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"Disused railway lines in northern Latvia and southern Estonia will be joined, connecting a huge network of rail trails for hikers and cyclists within two years."
- Stockholmis sõitis veoauto rahva sekka
(Postimees | ERR)
"Vigastatute seas on lapsed."
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- Man wanted by police in connection with suspected terror attack
(Radio Sweden | Foreign Policy)
"A lorry drove down the pedestrianised Drottinggatan street in central Stockholm and crashed into the Åhléns department store. … The lorry, which belongs to the brewery Spendrups, was hijacked outside a restaurant in central Stockholm earlier today."
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Thursday 6. April
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- Putin signed revised decree granting visa-free entry to Russia for 'non-citizens' of Estonia and Latvia
(Latvian Broadcasting)
"There remain around 250,000 non-citizens in Latvia and around 80,000 in Estonia. These are mainly Soviet-era immigrants to the countries and their descendants who have chosen not to undergo naturalization during the last two decades. However, the new decree will affect only around 6,000 people in total, according to earlier information from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
- Kelly Sildaru kerkis Itaalias pargisõidu juunioride maailmameistriks
(ERR)
"Itaalias Chiesa in Valmalencos tuli naiste pargisõidu juunioride maailmameistriks Kelly Sildaru, kes kogus 95,33 punkti. MM-tiitlini aidanuks teda ka avavooru 94,00 punkti."
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- Kui palju on Eestis politseinikke ja kuhu neid juurde tuleb
(Postimees graafik)
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St. Petersburg Subway Bombing
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- Terrorism in Russia
(Foreign Affairs)
"On Monday, the subway system of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, was the site of a massive bomb blast that killed 14 commuters and wounded more than 50 others. (A second, unexploded device was subsequently found and defused by authorities.) The attack marked the most significant terrorist incident to hit the Russian Federation since December of 2013.”
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"Russia’s involvement (in Syria) … has also made Moscow the target of Islamist ire, with both the Islamic State (also called ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, pledging to retaliate in Russia."
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"Monday’s attack may well have been the start of just such an offensive.”
- Arvamus: Hirm - Putini liitlane ('Fear - Putin’s Ally’)
(Postimees)
"Kui küsida, kes on suurim kasusaaja Peterburi sündmustest, siis on see Putini režiim. Hirm on olnud Putini Venemaa oluline komponent ning ühiskond pole suutnud sellest seisundist viimase 18 aasta jooksul välja rabeleda. Algas kõik elumajade plahvatustest, millele on regulaarselt järgnenud uued ja uued plahvatused rahvarohketes kohtades, mis on aidanud ühiskonda terroriohuga pinges hoida. 1999. aastal töötas see suurepäraselt, kuid ei pruugi töötada praegu, kuna on palju neid, kes kahtlustavad, et võimude hirm ühiskonna ees ning terrorirünnakud on omavahel seotud."
- Will Petersburg Terrorist Act Stabilize or Destabilize Russia?
(Paul Goble)
"Just as he has in the past, Vladimir Putin is counting on being able to exploit the latest horrific terrorist attack in Russia to boost his authority, to tighten the screws on Russian society, and to try to convince Western leaders that they should overlook his actions in Ukraine in the name of fighting international terrorism."
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"But the big question now and in the coming days is whether he will succeed in these efforts or whether the precedents from his own past will combine with the fact that this is the first major terrorist attack in central Russia in seven years and have exactly the opposite effect, undermining Putin’s power by raising more questions and thus contributing to destabilization."
- Terror is opportunity in Putin’s Russia
(EuroMaidan Press)
"One of the most famous Russian political emigres Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who had served ten years in Putin’s prison, wrote on the day of the metro bombing that the tragedy blurred the differences between the regime supporters and the opposition. 'Today we are all in the same boat regardless of views, rank, and age,' he stated. 'What matters is that we are together.' Such an impulse, while understandable from the human point of view, shows that terror attacks in Russia objectively work for the authorities’ benefit, allowing to shift the attention from civic protest sentiments to the existential danger that touches upon everyone. Khodorkovsky in fact admitted this point three days later."
- Seeing Opportunity In Tragedy - Again
(Brian Whitmore)
"Yury Shvytkin, the deputy chair of the State Duma's Defense Committee, has proposed a moratorium on public demonstrations in response to the attack. And State Duma Deputy Vitaly Milonov is introducing legislation banning online calls for unsanctioned demonstrations and requiring all social-network users to register with their passport details."
✔︎ How Tyrants Use Terror Management to Consolidate Power
(Slate)
"The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on—this is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it. Modern tyrants are terror managers. Do not allow your shock to be turned against your freedom. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that aspiring tyrants exploit such events in order to change regimes and to consolidate power.”
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"James Madison nicely made the point that tyranny arises “on some favorable emergency.” For tyrants, the lesson of the Reichstag fire is that one moment of shock enables an eternity of submission. For us, the lesson is that our natural fear and grief must not enable the destruction of our institutions."
- Kremlin Planning 'Anti-Terrorism' Rallies to Match Corruption Protests
(The Moscow Times)
"Demonstrations will be held in large Russian cities on Saturday, Apr. 8 … 'We haven't been given any target numbers or slogans, but it's clear that there should not be fewer people than there'd usually be [at a regional demonstration].' … special attention would be given to cities which saw a large turnout during mass anti-corruption protests on March 26. The protests, organized by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were the largest Russia has seen since 2011-2012."
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Tuesday 4. April
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- Ülevaade: Rail Baltic
(Delfi)
"Oli aasta 1995, kui Lennart Meri käis Tapal. Raudteejaamas pistnud ta pea piletimüügikassasse ja küsinud rahulikult: "Palun mulle kaks piletit Pariisi!". Ajanud piletimüüja segadusse, meenutas Meri, kuidas kolmekümnendatel aastatel ostis isa Tapa jaama kassast ilma probleemideta endale ja talle piletid Pariisi. Kas nüüd ongi aeg nii kaugel, et presidendi soov saab teoks ning Eesti haagib end nõukogudeaegsest raudteesüsteemist lahti, et ühenduda Euroopaga?"
- Rail Baltic FAQ
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- Rail Baltic to cost €5.8 billion
(ERR)
- The Tiny Nation That’s Leading Europe In Digital Innovation
(Huffington Post)
[Another E-Estonia article.]
- Opinion: No playing Russian roulette
(The Washington Times)
- Lithuania says Russia has ability to launch Baltic attack in 24 hours
(Reuters)
- Commentary: Europe Wakes Up
(Ziet Online)
- Eesti kultuuripäevad New Yorgis
5. aprill - 9. aprill
(ERR | Art Territory | Estonian World | others)
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Propaganda 101
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- Russia's 'Firehose of Falsehood’ Propaganda Model
(Rand Corporation | PDF report)
"Russia has taken advantage of technology and available media in ways that would have been inconceivable during the Cold War. Its tools and channels now include the Internet, social media, and the evolving landscape of professional and amateur journalism and media outlets."
- Russian Narratives on NATO’s Deployment
(Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab)
"How Russian-language media in Poland and the Baltic States portray NATO’s reinforcements."
https://medium.com/dfrlab/russian-narratives-on-natos-deployment-616e19c3d194
(Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab)
"How Russian-language media in Poland and the Baltic States portray NATO’s reinforcements."
https://medium.com/dfrlab/russian-narratives-on-natos-deployment-616e19c3d194
- If you want to see Russian information warfare at its worst, visit these countries
(Washington Post)
- Baltnews: Sputnik’s Unknown Brother
(re:Baltica)
"Three Baltic Russian-language news sites known collectively as Baltnews are secretly linked to the Kremlin’s global propaganda network.”
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"Three years ago, the Kremlin decided to power up its propaganda efforts and created Sputnik News, a younger brother to the globally-known TV channel RT. The new multimedia news agency opened offices around the world, including in the three Baltic capitals. Meanwhile, another news portal for the region’s sizeable Russian-speaking minority appeared. It was named Baltnews and, unlike Sputnik, tried to keep its connections to Russia secret. In truth, both outlets are brothers."
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- Lithuania Rules to Block 'Biased' Russian TV Channel
(The Moscow Times)
"The decision follows a broadcast of the channel's flagship news program, “At the Center of Events with Anna Prokhorova,” on Jan. 27. … Officials said that TV Center's take on the events broke Lithuanian laws against spreading misinformation and inciting hatred, calling the show “biased and one-sided.”
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- Way Off Topic -
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- 'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death
(The Guardian)
"At what point does the pomp of an imperial monarchy become ridiculous amid the circumstances of a diminished nation? “The worry,” a historian said, “is that it is just circus animals.” If the monarchy exists as theatre, then this doubt is the part of the drama. Can they still pull it off? Knowing everything that we know in 2017, how can it possibly hold that a single person might contain the soul of a nation? The point of the monarchy is not to answer such questions. It is to continue. “What a lot of our life we spend in acting,” the Queen Mother used to say."
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- Russia: 1917 -
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- Putin Likes to Pretend 1917 Never Happened
(The Atlantic)
"1917 is the most uncomfortable year possible for Russian propaganda. In the story of the fall of the Russian empire, there is no character for Putin to equate himself with as he did with Stalin, the man who led his countrymen to victory in the war—not Nicholas II, that loser who surrendered an empire. Nor can he equate himself with Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary who wrecked an empire. (Putin doesn’t hide his antipathy for Lenin, referring to him as the man who put a ticking atomic bomb under Russia.)"
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"And Putin certainly cannot compare himself to the democratic revolutionaries who governed the country from the February and October 1917. Thanks to their efforts, Russia became, for a short time, the most progressive country in the world, the first nation in Europe to abolish the death penalty, and one of the first to introduce universal suffrage, including for women."
- 'March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution'
By Will Englund
(Christian Science Monitor)
- Book review -
"Journalist Will Englund suggests that World War I set both the United States and Russia on the paths they would follow for the next century."
- Reframing Revolutions: Russia’s Centenary of 1917
(Intersection)
"It is easy to see why the revolutionary aspects of the February and October Revolutions have been dialled down by the regime: They pose two direct ideological challenges. First, since revolutions represent an illegal seizure of power from established rulers, any celebration of their occurrence is far from welcomed by the Russian government. Ever since the Colored Revolutions erupted across the post-Soviet space, and after the anti-government protests in Russia in 2012, the Russian government has been eager to highlight the negative consequences of revolution. A positive commemoration of revolutionary activity is unthinkable in this context. Secondly, the October coup – contrary to “the Great Patriotic War,” which has been successfully adapted from Soviet times into the Russian Federation’s culture of remembrance – is still a bone of internal contention in Russia. It resulted in a Civil War that split society into two main camps: “Whites” and “Reds” - historians and politicians to this day are divided over which was the righteous cause. It leaves the Kremlin in a strange state of indecision on whether it should give an answer to a perennial question of Russian history: was the USSR a continuation of the Russian Empire or its distortion?"
- Russia commemorates 1917 revolution - timidly
(The Art Newspaper)
"The centenary of the Russian Revolution is being commemorated this year by major museums in Europe and the US. … Back in Russia, however, museums have been subdued in their commemoration of a year that changed the world. Russia’s relationship with its revolutionary past is far from simple. Ever since the Kremlin crushed a fledgling uprising by urban liberals in 2012, it has been propagating the idea that revolutions are insidious foreign imports. Yet the preserved corpse of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, is still on display in Red Square and statues of him dominate public spaces around the country."
- Russian Officials Cautious on How to Mark 1917 Revolution Centenary
(VOA)
"It is impossible not to mark the revolution at all. This is a global event, and it affected the entire history of Russia and the whole world," said the State Museum of Political History's Sergey Spiridonov."
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"But it is quite unclear, both for the authorities and many other people, whose side to choose in this revolution," said Spiridonov. "We do not seem to support Bolsheviks anymore; we try to avoid this situation, to keep a distance from the Bolshevik ideology. But nevertheless, we realize that the present Russia is a successor of the Soviet Union."
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