View Full Version : Russian Bronze Statue in Estonia
Russia's Pravda quotes (http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/07-04-2008/104809-russian_military_base_estonia-0) The Economist "If you look at the Google Earth map and follow the route A-212 to the west of the Russian town Pskov, you'll notice a secret Russian military base not far from the border with Estonia."
The Economist magazine states that six years ago the place where today the base stands was empty. The magazine also states that this object isn’t listed in any catalogs. This means that the base was built recently.
“Take into consideration the fact that sputnik Inmarsat, that Russian base is to monitor, may receive information concerning Estonia, NATO and the EU, and you’ll understand that the issue might become quite urgent”, - says the Estonian newspaper Postimees (http://www.postimees.ee/) in reference to ETV24 (http://www.etv24.ee/).
The authors of the investigation think that military base belongs to Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information.
When the authors tried to track where the shadow of the dish’s northern border leads to, they found it was the island of Gogland in the Gulf of Finland. The island is 33 miles away from Estonia and 24 miles away from Finland.
The Estonian authorities announced that Russian defense campaign will lead to “increased tension between the countries”.
Estonia's Chief of Staff thinks the reason for the radar installation is just a “visible side of the iceberg”. “The main purpose of the radar to show Russia’s presence in the Gulf of Finland and to enhance security to the Nord Stream gas line”.
Joint Declaration (http://www.president.ee/en/duties/statements.php) of the Presidents of the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Estonia
Communism, a system entailing massive crimes against humanity and wide-scale violations of human rights has not yet received the full assessment of its extent and its lingering effect on Europe to this day. Historians have calculated that 100 million human beings have perished under communist regimes.
It dominated the lives and destinies of 120 million current citizens of the European Union. Few, if any, of those responsible have been brought to justice. Crimes like the Katyn killing of Polish officers, mass deportations from the Baltic states, the creation and operation of the Gulag or the man-made famine in Ukraine, the imprisonment of people who today are leading citizens of Europe, the denial of fundamental rights of freedom, of expression, speech, movement and many others have been neither properly investigated nor internationally assessed.
We propose to create an international commission to investigate communist crimes in Europe. We call upon European states to come together to create such an institution, appointing internationally recognized Europeans – respected scholars, senior politicians and others – to ensure that such an undertaking enjoys the trust and respect that is the sine qua non of any commission tasked to study such a difficult issue. The aim of such a commission should not be to condemn or pass judgment on individuals, for it would not be a court; the aim should be to illuminate what was done to a quarter of the citizens of Europe, to pass judgment on the system, whose long-lasting effects are with us even today.
Only in this way can we heal the remaining scars that even today divide us.
Ethnic and political conflicts have almost become a way of life in the Baltics. The three former Soviet republics that have now joined the European Union are taking drastic action to assert their nationalism. (110 sec./4.23Mb, shows: 12) (http://en.rian.ru/video/20080415/105154231.html)
Soviet soldiers monument in Estonia desecrated (http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12578011&PageNum=0)
One more monument to Soviet soldiers, who died during World War II – a common grave of Soviet soldiers in the village of Kyulitse, in the southern part of the republic – has been desecrated in Estonia.
This was found out during the spring campaign for putting in order monuments and graves of the war times, held by activists of the Union of Russian Compatriots. According to Gennady Sukhov, a member of the Coordinating Council of the Union, the activists found traces of paint on the monument, with which someone tried to paint out the inscription on it.
The activists washed the monument and cleared the territory around it. The Russian consulate and the local administration were informed of the incident.
Estonia-Russian relations improving (http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/20237/)
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet "In recent months our relations have been gradually improving"
He named an agreement on cultural cooperation signed a few months ago, as well as festivities to mark the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia in Moscow as examples of further cooperation.
The minister added that right now technical preparation of agreements between the two countries is going on, specifically mentioning agreements on rescue at sea and on social insurance.
Commenting on the increase in the number of residents taking Russian citizenship in Estonia, Paet said that he doesn't like when people who live in Estonia and have decided to stay here apply for another country's citizenship.
"It would be natural and normal if the people who live in Estonia had Estonian citizenship, and namely that is our goal," he said.
The minister added that despite the certain improvement in relations, Russia's behavior toward Estonia cannot be regarded as friendly.
"On the one hand we're being criticized on the topic of national minorities, whereas on the other hand one's talking about offering free entry to Russia for non-citizens, thus creating a paradoxical situation where non-citizens have big advantages over citizens," Paet said.
Metropolitan Kornili, head of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, has said that a cross of reconciliation should be erected in the place of the Soviet Soldiers monument.
"Why not erect a cross for soldiers killed on the battlefield? The war was horrible indeed. Estonians, the same people, fought on both sides. No matter how it was, a cross will always reconciliate.”
President Ilves speaking at the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin...
Estonia goes cyber "thanks" to occupation (http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/20272/)
In Estonia today, 66 percent of the population uses the Internet, and more than half of households have a home computer, 90 percent of which are connected to the Internet.
The audience was very interested in Estonia's experiences with conducting e-elections and in the use of ID cards, as well as the possibility of using the e-tax board environment to file tax declarations.
"Although an e-country has clear benefits -- savings in time and human resources, and the reduction of corruption -- there are also great risks," the president noted.
Estonia has not experienced any serious system errors, but last year it experienced a massive and coordinated cyber attack against the country with the goal of crippling the work of state institutions, banks and information channels, in order to destabilize the situation in the country, Ilves said.
The attacks came as a rebellion by those who were angered by the removal of Soviet war memorial.
Today, a NATO cyber security center is being established in Estonia, and European Union legislation to combat cyber crime and cyber attacks will also be planned as soon as possible, he said.
The Moscow Times Opinion by By Boris Kagarlitsky
"How interesting!" (http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1016/42/362119.htm)
These were the words of an airport security officer as he lifted a folder from my suitcase printed with the name of a conference titled, "Fascism: Familiar Enemy or New Threat?" He opened the folder, hoping to read its contents, but he was a bit disappointed to learn that I was only using the folder to hold miscellaneous papers.
"What do you think -- is there really a fascist threat?" he asked me.
I mentioned several racially motivated killings in Russia, but that did not interest him much.
"Sure, those things happen," he said. "But take a look at the Baltic countries! They deny ethnic Russians their civil rights and close down their schools. Or Ukraine," he continued. "That's even worse. They're planning to join NATO. I stay up all night thinking about this."
Exactly the same kinds of ethical norms prevail among the ruling elite in Moscow and Kiev. If the Kremlin had sufficient resources, it would not hesitate to create a NATO-like organization among former Soviet republics. Unfortunately, Moscow doesn't have the financial resources or the regional influence to do this, and this is why the Kremlin is so jealous of the United States' powerful leadership role in NATO.
But every dark cloud has its silver lining. Moscow's failure to halt NATO expansion might eventually prompt at least a few Foreign Ministry officials to seek allies in the West, including those from the anti-war movement. Even Soviet leaders understood this. Despite their "totalitarian" nature, they did a better job of finding a common ground with the West than the current leaders. In the end, it will be difficult to win the sympathies of European pacifists with imperial rhetoric and threats to "waste the terrorists in the outhouse."
TALLINN- (http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/20303/) In the days before the anniversary of the May riots, Estonians are looking back at how much they have suffered.
Russia has boycotted most if not all of Estonian goods in the last year, causing the smaller country fairly drastic results. Many people on both sides are quick to point fingers, but experts in the industry say that misunderstandings are at the heart of the problem.
The port of Tallinn reported losses of 13 percent as coal cargo from Russia was diverted to other ports.
Tourism is also down about 18 percent this year... People in Russia were afraid and confused about what was happening here..."
Estonian Ambassador Marina Kaljurand was quoted as saying that there is still a lack of trust and respect with regards to Russian Estonian relations, but hopefully things will get better under new Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.
A bit of history, more rhetoric from the ethnic Russians and absurd conclusions. As a foreigner here now 13 years, I had to negotiate all the Bureaucratic bungling and also be tested. To live here for 50 years and not able to utter a word of Estonian is pathetic. While these folks claim to be on the way 'home', they've recently found that Russians considered these folks mere expatriates, and have little desire to see them in Mother Russia.
Their status has long been a source of contention with Russia, and relations soured overtly after April last year when Estonia moved a Soviet-era Red Army war memorial, sparking riots in the capital Tallinn and anger in Moscow. Saying Estonia's action showed disrespect to the fighters of fascism, Russia retaliated with steps that dampened trade flows and knocked Estonia's economy.
INTEGRATION FAILED? (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080424/lf_nm/estonia_russia_dc)
Amid the tensions with Russia and continual debate about Russian-speakers at home, some people feel the country's goal of integrating Russian speakers has failed. "The Russian language community in Estonia is a completely independent, amorphous group of people, not active," said Sergei Stepanov, editor of the Narvskaya Gazeta newspaper in Narva.
He said the state had effectively discarded such people, leaving them in their own world, watching news from Russia itself, reading Russian websites and not engaging with Estonia.
Integration Minister Urve Palo, speaking in her office in the picturesque Old Town in the heart of Tallinn, is less bleak. "People tend to think that the April crisis showed that we have failed in integration," she said, but noted that last year's protests only drew 2,000 Russian-speakers, or a total of about 3,000 if Estonian youths were included.
"Not everybody lives separately. Of course there are people who are not interested in each other.
She said the government had recently adopted a new integration program that would further efforts to reduce the number of non-citizens. "I don't think they (people with Russian citizenship) are against Estonia," she added.
TALLINN. May 5 (Interfax) On the dock are leaders and activists of the Nightwatch public movement campaigning for protection of the monument to Soviet soldiers who liberated Tallinn from the Nazis.
European MPs Tatyana Zhdanok from Latvia and Zahra Wagenknecht from
Germany who were at the trial said that the case is political, though it
is seen as criminal in Estonia.
You're in your late 60s and have had just about enough of looking at Red Army Monuments in your home town. With little else to do as the government claims to be powerless in removing those offending objects, you rent a crane and pull the Sierra out yourself :D
TALLINN, May 23 (RIA Novosti) (http://en.rian.ru/world/20080523/108219952.html) - A radical Estonian nationalist, known for his threats to blow up the Bronze Soldier statue in Tallinn last year, has dismantled two other Soviet-era war memorials in the capital, national TV reported on Friday.
Yuri Lijm, 66, hired a crane and drove it to Audentes University. He then removed two statues of Soviet World War II heroes and delivered them to the Estonian History Museum.
One of the monuments commemorates Soviet cadets of the Tallinn military school, and the other is a statue of the founder of Estonia's Communist party, Hans Poogelmann.
"I came here to do this because it is the responsibility of a citizen of Estonia. If the authorities are so helpless, I have to do this myself. It is our holy duty," Lijm said in a TV interview.
"Estonia still has too many these socialist monuments. I will definitely not stop until I clean Estonia of them. A period of cleaning out the trash has been declared in Estonia. I am cleaning out the red trash," he said.
Last spring, Lijm publicly threatened to blow up the Bronze Soldier statue in central Tallinn, but was later acquitted by a court.
Estonia's Minister of Education, Tonis Lukas in an interview with Reporter.ee (http://www.reporter.ee/index.php/2008/06/04/kas-ka-eesti-peaks-tegema-oma-filmi-punakuritegudest/).
Brief translation:
Tonis Lukas does not recommend using the Latvian documentary "Soviet Story" as teaching material in Estonian schools.
Minister Lukas believes that the film, which describes Soviet Communists' collaboration with German Nazis in organizing mass killings, is accurate but that it is too shocking to be shown to children.
Lukas feels Estonia should make her own film on the subject to be used as teaching material, and also be shown in Estonia's Russian schools.
The film, two years in the making, analyzes Soviet heritage and its impact on contemporary Europe. It covers the Great Famine in The Ukraine, the Katyn Massacre, SS-KGB collaboration and Soviet mass deportations.
The European Parliament's National Political Group sponsored a portion of the documentary which premiered in Europe earlier in May.
... literally out of bed, by armed Red soldiers.
Book tells of Soviet crime against Estonians (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS02/80616001/1070)
Sixty-seven years ago this weekend, Estonia residents were dragged from their beds, shepherded to the train station and shipped to a Siberian labor camp by the Soviet Red Army.
To those who lived in the small Baltic country of Estonia at the time, it is an event known as the Great Deportation.
On Sunday morning, a memorial service for those victimized by the Great Deportation was held at the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Ghost.
One of the invited guests was Tiina Ets, the translator of "We Shall Live in Heaven,'' a first-hand memoir written by Pastor Harri Haamer on his days spent at a Soviet slave labor camp.
KHANTY-MANSIISK, June 28 (Itar-Tass) (http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12822077&PageNum=0) - The Russian and Estonian presidents discuss how to improve bilateral relations and solve accumulated problems.
"We meet rarely, and the considerable number of accumulated problems in our relations is linked with it. I suggest the opportunity should be used to discuss the problems," Dmitry Medvedev said, when opening the meeting with Toomas Hendrik Ilves on Saturday.
"I am glad to welcome you in Khanty-Mansiisk. We have a good event -- the Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples is held here," Medvedev said.
Estonian president Ilves who was attending a conference of Finno-Ugrian nations (http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=dabda88a-307b-4b49-b1a2-4a0c9f379b92&open=sec) held in Russia decided to leave after Konstantin Kossachov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Duma, started to make insults and veiled threats against Estonia in his speech.
Kossachov criticized Estonia by drawing parallels between the violence against the Mari national leaders and the Estonian police's use of force during the April riots in Tallinn 2007.
Estonian officials say that the claims made by the Russian official in his speech were libel and contained no facts and that Ilves was right to act the way he did.
Shortly after Ilves’s departure also president of Hungary and Finland left the congress.
Paul Goble writes overview of Russian newspapers.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/06/window-on-eurasia-estonia-russia-clash.html
President Ilves speech is here.
http://www.president.ee/en/duties/speeches.php
The atmosphere reminds one point form very old speech :)
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/fourteenpoints.htm
Russian films take a page from Soviet playbook
The Kremlin helps to produce movies and TV miniseries that promote its views.
By Mansur Mirovalev, Associated Press
In the new millennium, Russian filmmakers have found themselves in a business-oriented environment of investments and profits. But the government has taken a greater role in film projects and remains the country's largest film producer. Putin recently proposed a merger of three Soviet-era film studios into a mammoth, state-owned concern
"Law enforcement agencies are part of our state, and the government has the right to propagate whatever it considers necessary," said producer Leonid Vereshchagin of 3T, Mikhalkov's own production company, which has released several highly patriotic films.
Russian intelligence, police and military agencies have underwritten at least a dozen television series or films in recent years, spending tens of millions of dollars to polish their images.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/europe/la-et-russiafilm1-2008jul01,0,1093579.story
I'm reading at the moment Norman Davies' book "Europe. East and West." There is chapter called "Misunderstood Victory". Part of it was published in "Sunday Times".
How we didn't win the war . . . but the Russians did.
Britain and America still insist they defeated the Nazis, in the face of overwhelming evidence that they were minor partners, says Norman Davies
Similarly, the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states in 1940 was no mere “strengthening of the defences” or “readjustment of frontiers”. It was a brutal act of depredation that destroyed three sovereign European states, together with a quarter of their population. All these events were facilitated by the Nazi-Soviet pact, which gave Stalin the same licence for banditry in the Soviet sphere that Hitler was exploiting in the German.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article625175.ece
A top railway official said Estonia has seen a steady fall in volumes of Russian oil product exports (http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=a98e4dd3-938f-436f-b713-e5745e38ba4f&open=sec) and is eventually expecting the flow to dry up completely...
Russia used to export a quarter of its heavy fuel oil, about 25 million tonnes a year, as well as light products, through Estonia's port of Tallinn. But a diplomatic quarrel led Russian railways to divert most of the light products to its own ports.
"After the controversy over the Bronze Soldier in April 2007, Estonia already lost around 40 pct of Russian transit (http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=a955ee3a-24f9-43f0-b614-91bedb87dd9f), which is 3-4 pct of GDP... "
"The full re-direction of Russian oil product exports via Russian ports will cost around the same. In addition, we will lose our safety cushion in case of economic crisis," Bronshtein said in comment on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's comments on an end to all Russian oil product exports via Baltic ports.
Window on Eurasia: Moscow Paper Recalls when Soviets and Nazis Marched Together
September 23 – Sixty-nine years ago today, Soviet and Nazi German soldiers marched together in a military parade in Brest, just one month after Hitler and Stalin had concluded the non-aggression pact that made their countries allies, opened the way for World War II in Europe, and led to Moscow’s occupation of half the continent for 50 years.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2008/09/window-on-eurasia-moscow-paper-recalls.html
RADIO created the Third Reich’s ethnic battering ram: the Sudeten Germans, stranded in Czechoslovakia under the Versailles treaty. As David Vaughan recounts in his meticulous and poignant study of the war on the airwaves, Czechoslovakia’s own German-language programmes were hopelessly outgunned by the quantity, quality and audibility of the Nazi propaganda effort. Patriotic Czechoslovak journalists argued that it was the national radio’s job to broadcast in the national language: if their fellow-citizens wanted to hear programmes in German, they could tune in elsewhere. They did.
What Prague did offer was sometimes magnificently erudite (Thomas Mann, the exiled German literary giant, was a contributor) but had little appeal to skint, resentful German-speaking workers: they were easy prey for made-up stories of atrocities, discrimination, and conspiracies. That forged the crucial link in the Nazi argument: that ethnic Germans, around a quarter of Czechoslovakia’s population, wanted—and deserved—to join the Reich.
That is topical as well as tragic. You could read Mr Vaughan’s book, substituting ex-Soviet countries such as Estonia for Czechoslovakia. With Kremlin talk of “privileged interests” in Russia’s neighbourhood, and a litany of real and imagined grievances there, it is easy to imagine a resurgent Russia whipping up its millions of compatriots, living in foreign countries thanks to the collapse of the Soviet empire, into a frenzy while the outside world stands aloof. These stranded Russians tune almost exclusively into the Kremlin-run electronic media, not local stations, which broadcast poorly in Russian, if at all (the same mistake that Czechoslovakia made with German). The lesson of the 1930s is that once you lose hearts and minds, and malefactors gain them, everything else usually goes too.
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12376682
Estonian business association calls for better ties with Russia
TALLINN, November 17 (RIA Novosti) (http://en.rian.ru/world/20081117/118363185.html)
Russian-Estonian relations hit a low-point in April 2007 after Estonian authorities relocated a Soviet-era war monument from central Tallinn and disinterred the remains of soldiers ahead of Victory Day.
The Estonian Business Association said that Estonia should ratify a border agreement with Russia, by dropping a provision, which had earlier angered Moscow, as well as conclude a treaty to protect military cemeteries.
"We are calling for the establishment of neighborly relations, based on mutual respect and focused through opportunities and without offensive rhetoric against others," the document said.
The two countries signed border agreements on May 18, 2005, and the Estonian parliament ratified the documents on June 20, but with additional demands linked to the 1920 peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia.
On September 6, Russia notified Estonia that it was revoking its signature from the treaties because the 1920 document was no longer valid. Moscow said the new provisions in the ratification of the law could be seen as legally entitling Estonia to make some territorial claims on Russia.
The Memory Remains (http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=Culture+%26+Living&articleid=a1230646924)
By Anthony Johnston
Russia Profile
In the former Soviet satellite states, namely in Poland, Estonia and Ukraine, various ethnicities and political forces have competitively jousted for official ascendancy through the manifestation of monuments representing one cause or another, or their symbolic iconoclasm.
Maria Mälksoo, a researcher at the International Center for Defense Studies in Tallinn, views the controversy surrounding the Bronze Soldier statue, a Soviet World War II memorial in Tallinn's city center, as a moment when "[Estonia] and Russia seek more recognition from Europe of the Europeanness of their [respective] efforts in WWII, while, at the same time, denying the Europeanness of the other."
Estonians see the monument as a symbol of Soviet occupation and repression and its removal as a gesture of liberation and espousal of European values, while ethnic Russians see it as a marker of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, their claim to reside in Estonia, and their contribution to the outcome of European history.
Then there's this to further stir the pot :eek:
Russians protest at Estonia SS calendar (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/estonia/3965268/Russians-protest-at-Estonia-SS-calendar.html)
Now we have an acquittal with nobody to blame, other than hamstrung law enforcement. At the point most of us were ready to introduce reinforcements with armed military, the government stood down and Russia balked :mad:
"The actions of Night Vigil (http://topnews.us/content/22098-prosecutor-blamed-failure-estonia-riot-trial) and the defendants prior to the mass disturbances were in the opinion of the law enforcement agencies not unlawful until April 27, 2007, as the police did not intervene in their activities or demand that such activities be ended," the court ruled.
On Monday the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement welcoming the court ruling.
"The decision of the court again confirmed the fairness of the public outrage triggered by the provocative venture by the Estonian authorities to desecrate the graves of the Soviet soldiers and transfer the monument in Tallinn," it said.
If not already a farce, this evening's public poll indicates that 80 percent of those polled are afraid of yet another Bronze Night.
Vienna, January 13 – On the 18th anniversary of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev’s use of lethal force in Vilnius, a Russian portal has posted a recent lecture by a Russian historian who concludes that the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union in 1940 was “worse than any occupation” and created “a headache” for Moscow that continues to this day.
If one looks at Moscow’s approach to the Baltic countries in 1939-40, Zubkova said, it is clear that “this was above all an imperial project of Stalin, a project for restoring the empire despite the fact that in its details, its realization was seriously affected by the current political arrangement and in the first instance was connected with the war.”
Had the Soviet leader simply occupied the three Baltic countries and left their independence in place, the Moscow historian said, the entire situation would have been different. But what began in 1940 in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was “not an occupation,” but rather the “arrival of Soviet power.”
And “the consequences of the introduction of a Soviet regime” and the suppression of the independent state existence of these three countries , Zubkova argued, “turned out to be worse [not only for them but for the USSR] than any occupation could have been.” And she suggested that this was a lesson that Moscow had learned when it moved into Eastern Europe in 1945.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2009/01/window-on-eurasia-sovietization-of.html
Behind The Estonia Cyberattacks
March 06, 2009
Asadova, who was moderating the discussion, asked why Russia is routinely blamed for the cyberattacks in Estonia and Georgia, where government sites were seriously disrupted during the August war.
She might not have been expecting the answer she got from Sergei Markov, a State Duma Deputy from the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party: "About the cyberattack on Estonia... don't worry, that attack was carried out by my assistant. I won't tell you his name, because then he might not be able to get visas."
Markov, a political analyst who has long been one of Vladimir Putin's glibbest defenders, went on to explain that this assistant happened to be in "one of the unrecognized republics" during the dispute with Estonia and had decided on his own that "something bad had to be done to these fascists." So he went ahead and launched a cyberwar.
"Turns out it was purely a reaction from civil society," Markov reportedly said, adding ominously, "and, incidentally, such things will happen more and more."
http://www.rferl.org/content/Behind_The_Estonia_Cyberattacks/1505613.html
Kremlin-backed group behind Estonia cyber blitz
March 11 2009
Russia has consistently denied any involvement. Yesterday, however, Konstantin Goloskokov, a "commissar" in the youth group Nashe, which works for the Kremlin, told the Financial Times that he and some associates had launched the attack, which appears to be the first time anyone has claimed responsibility.
"I wouldn't have called it a cyber attack; it was cyber defence," he said.
"We taught the Estonian regime the lesson that if they act illegally, we will respond in an adequate way."
Sergei Markov, a parliamentarian and Mr Goloskokov's boss, volunteered the information that one of his assistants had planned and implemented the attack at a conference earlier this month.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/57536d5a-0ddc-11de-8ea3-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
RAND's "Russian Foreign Policy"
As Russia's economy has grown, so have the country's global involvement and influence, which often take forms that the United States neither expects nor likes, as the August 2008 conflict in Georgia demonstrated. Despite the two countries' many disagreements and the rising tension between them, the United States and Russia share some key interests and goals. In this monograph, the authors assess Russia's strategic interests and the factors that influence Russian foreign policy broadly. They examine Russia's domestic policies, economic development, and views of the world, as well as how these translate into security policies at home and abroad. They then consider the implications of Russia's evolving approaches for U.S. interests.
Eastern Europe and the Baltic States
EU and NATO enlargement into former Soviet-controlled Eastern
Europe and the Baltic states has further complicated Russia’s relations
with Europe. Poland and the Baltic states are determined to resist any
perceived Russian influence in their affairs and to use their new status as
EU and NATO members to help cement the independence of neighboring
Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine (as well as Georgia). These policies
impinge on what Russia perceives as its zone of influence in Eurasia and
they inflame Russian nationalism. Tension with Estonia and Latvia,
especially, over alleged discriminatory treatment of ethnic Russians and
Russian-speakers in those countries has been a consistent problem. Tensions
came to a head in 2005 over commemorations of the end of World
War II. Estonia and Latvia refused to attend commemorative ceremonies
in Moscow unless Russia admitted to having occupied those countries
after the war.67 The 2007 relocation of a statue that commemorated
Red Army liberators (according to Russia) or occupiers (according to
Estonia) from its position in a central square in Tallinn to a local cemetery
resulted in a war of words, demonstrations, and cyber attacks on
the part of the Russian and Estonian governments and publics.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG768.pdf
A little intrigue and another naive Russian Blogger here at Radio Free Europe (http://www.rferl.org/Content/Behind_The_Estonia_Cyberattacks/1505613.html)
A new blog post (http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/n_asadova/576689-echo/) for Ekho Moskvy makes a startling revelation about the 2007 attacks. The post, by journalist Nargiz Asadova -- a columnist for RIA Novosti based in Washington, and an Ekho Moskvy host -- describes a March 3 panel discussion between Russian and American experts on information warfare in the 21st century.
Asadova, who was moderating the discussion, asked why Russia is routinely blamed (http://www.rferl.org/content/Georgian_Government_Accuses_Russia_Of_Cyberwar/1190477.html) for the cyberattacks in Estonia and Georgia, where government sites were seriously disrupted during the August war.
She might not have been expecting the answer she got from Sergei Markov, a State Duma Deputy from the pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party: "About the cyberattack on Estonia... don't worry, that attack was carried out by my assistant. I won't tell you his name, because then he might not be able to get visas."
Tom Odom
04-02-2009, 03:40 PM
A little intrigue and another naive Russian Blogger here at Radio Free Europe (http://www.rferl.org/Content/Behind_The_Estonia_Cyberattacks/1505613.html)
Hey mate,
Are you back at home base?
Maybe that would get the visitor an extended visa....
Best
Tom
Hey mate,
Are you back at home base?
Maybe that would get the visitor an extended visa....
Best
Tom
Hey Tom,
Arrived yesterday morning with 5 others and darn glad to be back in civilization. I think my first shower lasted 20 minutes :p
We're on the verge of yet another anniversary of the Bronze Dude and Nights, and granting visas to Dumas and their cronies will be a non-starter :D
With new legislation in place, some fine weapons for rioters, several hundred volunteers (assistant police officers), and authorization to employ the military and reserves... Hmmm, well, it should a good time.
Best, Stan
Ken White
04-02-2009, 05:33 PM
Remember most accidents happen within 2 Miles / 3.22 km of home...;)
Ron Humphrey
04-02-2009, 06:40 PM
Remember most accidents happen within 2 Miles / 3.22 km of home...;)
The whole home...your hat and mobile hat racks probably keeping you on your toes:D
Glad to hear your home.
Glad to see I was missed :)
Not quite sure where you two are going with this, but the abuse beats what I tried to pass on the porcelain for the last 3 months :D
Forget that one !
Regards, Stan
The Russian defense ministry said today that an article which was put on its site a few days ago and which has sparked outrage among some Russian commentators with its suggestion that Poland was to blame for the start of World War II “must not be considered the official point of view of the Ministry of Defense.”
In a statement to journalists, the ministry’s press service said that the article, “Inventions and Falsifications in the Assessment of the Role of the USSR on the Eve and at the Start of World War II” by Col. Sergey Kovalev of the ministry’s Institute of Military History, was only for discussion (www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=63460).
Indeed, Sukhov says, Kovalev’s argument fits in with the pattern of “hysteria” in certain Russian quarters about the removal of the Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn, even as Russian companies move similar monuments in Russia itself in order to make “selfish” profits from the real estate beneath them.
And the military writer’s argument also fits with the notion, now enshrined in a Russian history textbook “according to which Joseph Stalin was ‘an effective manager.’” According to Sukhov, texts like Kovalev’s suggest that the time may come when some in Russia will decide to describe Adolf Hitler as “’an effective manager’” too.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2009/06/window-on-eurasia-moscow-distances.html
Russia wheels out the evil weapon of history.
Distorting the facts about the Second World War may well be a prelude to a battle over a land corridor through Poland, writes Simon Heffer.
Published: 4:24PM BST 06 Jun 2009
Russia has been struggling with its idea of itself since the international humiliation of losing its empire nearly 20 years ago. For a time its sudden wealth – thanks to a high oil price and the value of other of its minerals – restored its amour propre.
Then the oil price collapsed, soon after the militarily successful but diplomatically disastrous war with Georgia last year. Once more Russia was poor – with many of its greatest businessmen broke – and an international pariah. So now history, that much-abused weapon, is brought out of the armoury.
To the rest of the world, the Stalin era is one of shame for Russia. The country is seeking to change this. The cynical pact with the Nazis, concluded between Molotov and Ribbentrop a little more than a week before the outbreak of war, is now defended as an essential prelude to the defence against the "inevitable" attack by Hitler. It enabled Russia to occupy half of Poland and the Baltic States.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/5462029/Russia-wheels-out-the-evil-weapon-of-history.html
Magistra vitae?
May 28th 2009
The fine line between disagreement and propaganda
FORGET gas, nukes or Iran. The deep divide between Russia and its western neighbours is about history. President Dmitry Medvedev has set up a commission to look at “falsifications of history that damage Russia’s interests” (he should use a comma: this phrasing implies that other falsifications promote Russia’s interests). A draft law in the Duma would criminalise equating Stalin and Hitler, or denying that the Red Army “liberated” eastern Europe from fascism. Whether out of cynicism or nostalgia, Russia’s rulers have resurrected the Soviet view of history, itself a product of the Stalin era. For the countries of central and eastern Europe, this is not just obnoxious, but threatening.
Similarly, different forms of collaboration during the war deserve more study. Should, for example, the émigré Cossack leaders such as Pyotr Krasnov who fought on Hitler’s side be counted in the same category as the Russian Liberation Army of General Andrei Vlasov, formed by captured Soviet soldiers? Tens of thousands of Russians fought alongside the Nazis, with mixed motives: deluded, desperate and despicable. How might they be compared with the Estonians and Latvians who fought the Soviet advance in 1944? It is easy to paint the past in simple brushstrokes of evil black and brilliant white. But adding carefully chosen shades of grey creates a more informative picture.
Sadly, Russia is not looking for such nuances. Indeed, it is demanding that other countries abandon complexity and fit their history into the Soviet straitjacket. This may resonate inside Russia but it rings the wrong bells abroad, particularly as grim anniversaries approach: the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviet attack on Poland, the annexation of the Baltic states and Western Ukraine, and the massacre of captured Polish officers at Katyn.
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13726216
A quick video on the Baltic Way (http://www.balticway.net/index.php?page=baltic-way&hl=en) (human Chain).
Twenty years ago (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8213369.stm), the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were firmly part of the Soviet Union.
But many people were calling for greater independence from Moscow.
One high profile protest against Soviet rule was the human chain across all three nations on 24 August 1989, when millions of people joined hands.
Brian Hanrahan reported from Estonia during the late 1980s for the BBC, and has returned to see the legacy of the revolution.
During last week in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) there were destroyed Russian church and war memorial. No reaction from Russian side.
Here are articles in Russian.
http://www.newsru.com/world/22nov2009/jh.html
http://www.vremya.ru/2009/216/5/242370.html
Great articles, Kaur ! But keep in mind that only 5.5 percent of the 28 million are Russian (well, so they think they are), which doesn't leave much room to bitch or be acknowledged. We could be so lucky :D
If I remember correctly, the Uzbek government was already tearing down glorified Soviet memorabilia as early as 1890 something. Much like Estonia, Tashkent desired to take control over her own destiny. Who would want to be remembered as being part of the Soviet empire with a bunch of churches and bronze statues ?
Did you catch the Russian paper Pravda's journalist who comment something to the effect of "better to show respect to NATO who are protecting the world and the harvest of opium poppies" :wry:
Much like Estonia's President, Russia can't afford to piss off President Karimov (he does not play well with others (Russians)) :cool:
The DOS has some interesting points regarding religion and Uzbekistan (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127374.htm). A bit of a long and boring read though !
Regards, Stan
During last week in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) there were destroyed Russian church and war memorial. No reaction from Russian side.
Here are articles in Russian.
http://www.newsru.com/world/22nov2009/jh.html
http://www.vremya.ru/2009/216/5/242370.html
Oops, forgot the English speaking community with my last post :o
The demolition of monuments might be another proof of Uzbekistan turning its face to the West. Pravda.ru interviewed Andrei Grozin, Head of the Department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the Institute for CIS countries to find out.
“The actions of the Uzbek officials look like a challenge. Yet, if we were to analyze their behavior since the collapse of the USSR, we would have observed nothing strange. Tashkent was initially determined to eliminate everything linked to the Soviet past (http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/25-11-2009/110731-uzbekistan-0).
1 neostalinist Russian site has produced their own database of resistance vicitims. Paul Goble takes a look from different angle.
Many Russians who visit this site may learn for the first time just how strong was the resistance to Stalin’s imposition or re-imposition of Soviet power in the Western borderlands of the USSR and the occupied Baltic countries, something that will do little to promote positive attitudes among them to the peoples of these now independent countries.
At the same time, many of the peoples in these countries will be able to use this site to learn more about the national resistance in their past than many of them have up to now, a knowledge that will also affect how they view the Soviet system and those who continue to apologize for some of its worst periods and personalities.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/04/window-on-eurasia-new-russian-web-site.html
The Worst of the Madness
November 11, 2010
Anne Applebaum
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Timothy Snyder
Basic Books, 524 pages, $29.95
Stalin’s Genocides
by Norman M. Naimark
Princeton University Press, 163 pp., $26.95
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/worst-madness/?pagination=false
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