Russian Bronze Statue in Estonia

[Stan]

Estonia's Prime Minister comments on Estonia-Russia trade and economic ties and the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty.

“not so close” - PM

Estonia wants to have good-neighbourly, pragmatic relations with all neighbours, including Russia, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said here in reply to Russian reporters’ queries after a speech at the Washington National Press Club.

However, “there is space for improving relations” with Moscow, the prime minister stressed. Questions focused both on economy and politics, but he narrowed them down to trade and economic relations between the two neighbouring countries. He stressed that these ties “are not so close,” but demonstrated no regrets about it.

Speaking about the economic consequences of the recent row around the dismantlement of the monument to Soviet Soldier Liberator in Tallinn, Ansip said that following the row Russian-Estonian trade “has declined by over 40 percent,” but this cost Estonia only 0.5 to one percent of GDP growth.

...but it does not like such investments, which make it possible to manipulate political decisions.

Doudou Diene, U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance recently spoke about signs of discrimination against Russian-speaking population in Estonia.

In reply to an Itar-Tass query about prospects for Estonia’s joining the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty, the prime minister said his country would join the treaty as “new member” no earlier than it was ratified by all present participants.

He said Tallinn would discuss limits on the number of forces and armaments “first of all with NATO partners, and only then with third parties”.

[Stan]

TALLINN. Nov 29 (Interfax) - A group set up to prevent a Soviet war memorial from being removed from the center of Tallinn said on Thursday that one of its activists has filed a suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, accusing Estonian police and the Kaitseliit paramilitary organization of unjustified cruelty.

"Alexander", who is an activist of the Night Watch group and asked for not his surname to be published, claimed that police and Kaitseliit members subjected him to brutal treatment during protests in April 2007 against the transfer of the memorial - a soldier's statue and small mass military grave a nearby - from the heart of Tallinn to a military cemetery outside the capital, Night Watch spokeswoman Larisa Neshchadimova told Interfax.

"During the mass riots, 'Night Watchman' Alexander was trying to stop a crowd from turning over cars and vandalizing a bus, a streetcar, and a cafe that had people inside, and stopped an ethnic street fight," Neshchadimova said.

"Police officers were unable to record a single fact discrediting Alexander. Nevertheless, on April 27, he found himself in D-Terminal [a police facility], where a Kaitseliit member in civilian clothes beat him up for refusing to obey his demands," the spokeswoman said.

"With support from the Center for Human Rights Information in Estonia, Alexander has tried to restore justice, but all levels of the judiciary and prosecution service have refused to accept his applications," Neshchadimova said.

"This means that the human right to legal defense has been violated in Estonia."

Alexander is suing the Estonian government, accusing it of refusing to investigate acts banned by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and of denying him rights as proclaimed by the Convention's Articles 5 and 6. as rp

Kaitseliit = Defense League or National Guard

[Stan]

After the conflict with Estonia over the Soviet bronze soldier monument, Russian transit through Estonia has been reduced by 40 percent.

The losses of Estonian Railways are 35 percent compared with a year ago, with the transportation of crude oil, gasoline, coal falling dramatically. The railway has announced plans to lay off up to 40 percent of its employees, mainly those on the Russian line. General economic growth has also slowed in the country, by 2.5 percent in the second quarter. Inflation in the country will hit 9 percent this year, far above the Euro zone average. In all, the conflict with Russia has created losses of about €320 million, according to one Estonian economist.

Russia's approach to the defense of Russian speakers living in Estonia and the other Baltic countries has shifted from dependence on international organization to a multifaceted approach based on diplomatic and economic influence. International organizations, particularly the Council of Europe and the UN have also expressed dissatisfaction with the position of Russian-speaking non-citizen residents of Estonia as well.

[Ken White]

You get a tan?

[Stan]

Ken, Thanks !
Indeed I did get a tan and will post a trip report on the members only forum within 24 hours, complete with graphics

You get a tan?

[Stan]

"The moratorium is not an end in itself but a way of attracting our partners' attention to the unfavourable situation in this area,"...

Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said "the treaty is dead. With the CFE gone, European nations will lose an important independent source of information about Russian military activity."

Russia also wants Baltic countries such as Estonia, once part of the Soviet Union and thus of the Warsaw Pact, to join the CFE.

Last week Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko gave a mixed message.

"Russia has no plans to raise its military presence in Europe, obviously, that is, if there is not an attempt to raise the military presence by NATO countries," he said.

According to Felgenhauer "it is practically inevitable that Russia will begin moving weapons west, primarily to borders of Baltic states."

"It makes a lot of economic sense to move forces from Siberia to Leningrad district, because it's two or three times more expensive to keep them in Siberia. It will also send a powerful signal to the West. It's a win-win situation for Russia."

[Stan]

TALLINN - Russia’s railroad chief held informal talks with Estonian Economic Affairs Minister Juhan Parts on Dec. 8, the first meeting by a highly placed Russian official since bilateral relations between the countries collapsed earlier this year.

Russian Railways CEO Vladimir Yakunin and Parts, together with Estonian Railways CEO Kaido Simmermann, discussed railroad and port infrastructure development in both the Baltic state and Russia. A large delegation of Russian businessmen had accompanied Yakunin to Estonia, according to reports.

Though no agreement or memorandum materialized from the talks, the closed-door meeting was a breakthrough in facilitating a thaw seven months after the Bronze Soldier riots in Tallinn and an organized cyber-attack on Estonian Web sites that in all likelihood had been orchestrated in Russia.

Yakunin’s primary purpose in visiting Estonia was to attend a commemorative ceremony dedicated to the 65th anniversary of World War II pilot Endel Puusepp, an ethnic Estonian and Soviet war hero. Yakunin is chairman of Center for National Glory, an NGO that promotes Russia’s military heritage.
In the words of Simmermann, “Although the purpose of Russian Railways chief’s visit to Estonia is not related to the railroad, I proposed Vladimir Yakunin find time for a meeting.”

Freight turnover on Estonian Railway’s infrastructure totaled 2.3 million tons in November, down 38.7 percent year-on-year, the company announced on Dec. 10. Of total freight volume nearly 61 percent consisted of oil or oil products, which as a group were down 30.5 percent against last year.

[Stan]

Russia's REGNUM writes: Website of Kyrgyz Central Election Commission hacked by Estonian hackers

The official website of the Kyrgyz Central Election Commission was hacked earlier today, on December 14. The message “This site has been hacked by Dream of Estonian organization” was published on the main page of the site, reports a REGNUM correspondent.

Up to the present moment, no information on the website is available. Instead of usual information, “The page cannot be displayed” sign is shown. It was not the first case of a hacker attack against Kyrgyz internet resources. Earlier, during riots and election campaigns, Kyrgyz internet providers were subjected to DoS attacks.

[kaur]

I suppose that this article explains very well the backround of Regnum.

That REGNUM should be playing this role, Akhundov said, is not entirely surprising, given its origins and management. Modest Kolerov, the former head of the Russian President’s department for international ties with CIS countries and promoting Moscow’s interests there, created the agency in 2002.

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/...g-russian.html

[Stan]

By Chris Schüler in Liepaja, Latvia, 14 December 2007 "From the coast road that leads into the Latvian port of Liepaja from the north, it is an astonishing sight – a vast Russian Orthodox cathedral, its gilded onion domes lit up by floodlights, surrounded by a suburb of crumbling Soviet apartment blocks."

Liepaja's official tourist brochure tries to make a virtue of Karosta's "enchanting brutality", waxing lyrical about "the sweet smell of wild roses among the hard, cold steel of twisted barbed wire". In reality, it is a dismal, desperate place, riven by unemployment and drug addiction, its streets dark and deserted on a Saturday night. Karosta is where most of the city's Russian-speaking population live – the ancillary workers brought here to service the naval base, now left high and dry by the receding tide of Soviet power.

It is a problem that affects all three Baltic republics to varying extents. For many indigenous Balts, Russian-speakers are an unwelcome leftover of a brutal 50-year occupation, during which their languages and cultures were suppressed and tens of thousands of their compatriots killed or deported to the gulags.

The friction with Russia over oil and gas, along with a recent row over the passage of Russian submarines through Estonian waters, has done little to ease the situation.

But among some sections of the Russian-speaking population, an angry backlash is gathering force.

Next month, four men are due to go on trial in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, for their part in riots which were sparked last April by government plans to move a Soviet war memorial. The men are all members of a pro-Russian group called Night Watch.

Russian-speakers account for 58 per cent of Estonia's prison population and approximately 80 per cent of HIV-positive cases. They have a higher incidence of respiratory diseases, alcoholism and drug addiction and, according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal in 2004, significantly higher rates of suicide than native Estonians or Russians in Russia.

Amnesty International warns that the Russian-speakers in Estonia are "impeded from the full enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights". Last year, it condemned the country's Language Inspectorate, which carries out spot-checks on workers to see if they can speak Estonian – if they fail, they face losing their jobs – as "repressive and punitive in nature".

Much more at the link...

[Stan]

Estonia's Singing Revolution film receives NYT's Critic's Pick

By MATT ZOLLER SEITZ "Can singing change history? “The Singing Revolution,” a documentary by James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty about Estonia’s struggle to end Soviet occupation, shows that it already has."

The first part of “Revolution” provides a thumbnail sketch of 20th-century Estonian history, and it’s not pretty.

...when Estonians gathered in Tartu for the Estonian song festival, which often drew upward of 25,000 people. The images of these festivals are moving already; the force of the singers and the precision of their conductors are stunning to behold.

But the emotion swells further when Estonians defy their occupiers by singing nationalist folk songs. This bold act reclaimed Estonian identity...

Imagine the scene in “Casablanca” in which the French patrons sing “La Marseillaise” in defiance of the Germans, then multiply its power by a factor of thousands, and you’ve only begun to imagine the force of “The Singing Revolution.”

[Stan]

"Without meaning to sound too cynical, we could honestly say that the most positive thing about 2007 – as far as the Baltics are concerned – is that it’s finally over. It opened with a warm, drippy winter that threatened to kill off the local ski industry, and ended on a high note, with the Baltics joining the Schengen zone."

Estonia’s year of the bronze

Without question one single event in Estonia – easily the biggest story to come out of the nation since its 1991 independence – overshadowed all others in 2007: the Bronze Soldier riots of April 26 - 27. Even as early as January political forces were lining up on both sides of the issue...

The Bronze Soldier storm finally broke on April 26 when, seeing the beginning of archeological work protesters came out in force. It’s hard to say whether the two days of rioting that followed was more connected to politics or alcohol. ...a huge backslide in ethnic relations.

In early May the media’s focus had shifted to the unprecedented cyber attacks against the nation’s IT infrastructure, and the antics of Nashi, a pro-Putin youth group, who had surrounded the Estonian embassy in Moscow.

Later in the year the losses from Russian import and export embargoes would be tallied up, along with those from jittery tourists who stayed away.

Estonian residents then had time to either grumble or cheer as new laws went into effect on June 5 to make the nation’s restaurants and bars smoke free. Suddenly patios and doorways became the coolest places to hang out.

Midsummer celebrations were tempered by the news on June 23 that two Estonians, Sgt. Kalle Torn, 24, Jr. Sgt. Jako Karuks, 33, were killed in Afghanistan by a missile.

Later that summer Franz, a 20-year-old polar bear at the Tallinn zoo, was killed in an escape attempt.

Since then the Estonian government has refused to allow the Nord Stream gas pipeline project to conduct survey... Yet another sign of continuing bad relations with Russia.

Much more at the link to include Latvia and Lithuania

[Stan]

The NATO designation for the TU-154 is coicidently "Careless"

A Russian Tu-154 entered half a km (500 yards) into the Finnish airspace at 10.55-10.58 a.m. local time (3:55 a.m. - 3:58 a.m. EST), southwest of Porvoo on Finland's southern coast, the ministry said in a statement.

The plane's crew deviated from the original course and took the direction towards Finland, at 11.56-12.02 Moscow time, upon an order from the regional air traffic control centre in Tallinn (Estonia)," Itar-Tass quoted Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, the aide to Russia's airforce commander, as saying.

"The Tallinn traffic controller twice gave the order to the crew, and this order was fulfilled," he said. "At 12.02 Moscow time, the plane returned to its original course and continued the flight without further deviations."

On Nov. 28, military officials from Russia, Finland and Estonia agreed on ways to avoid airspace violations in the region, including improving the exchange of information on flight plans and sharing technical details.

The parties agreed to another round of talks early next year in Moscow, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said.

[Stan]

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in a recent interview with Interfax news agency

that the nation would seek to join the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty immediately after its ratification, news from the Estonian capital Tallin said Thursday.

The Estonian government has set up a committee charged with preparatory work, Paet said, adding that negotiations on the joining of the treaty would start immediately after its ratification by NATO members.

[Stan]

A court in the Estonian capital Tallinn is due to consider an appeal calling for the return of a Soviet memorial to the city centre. The remains of Soviet soldiers who died fighting the Nazis were moved from the city centre in April 2007.

The appeal comes from two daughters of one of the soldiers, Ivan Sysoev, whose remains were not found during the relocation.

The Estonian government decided to move the monument along with a mass grave of 13 soldiers to a military cemetery on the outskirts of Tallinn.

It provoked mass clashes between police and the city's ethnic Russian population. Russians severely criticised the decision to move the memorial, saying it undermined the role of the Soviet soldiers who they see as liberators.

[Stan]

Estonia

The press is jealous about improvements in relations between Moscow and Riga.

"After the signing of the Russian-Latvian border treaty, Russia has started treating Latvia as a constructive partner. Yesterday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not miss the opportunity to demonstrate his good attitude to Latvia by inviting Latvian President Valdis Zatlers to Moscow. "The retiring Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis compared the ratification of the border treaty with the Russian troops withdrawal from the Baltic nations... He said that the future generations would not have to worry about the inviolability of national borders or national security."

However, some commentators are warning against illusions in the big neighbor's foreign policy. "Of course, the Latvian President may go to Moscow, admire Red Square and have a cup of tea with Vladimir Putin, but will this fill with oil the pipeline that has been empty for years? Will Russia stop chanting about 'human rights violations' in the Baltic countries? There is no doubt that Latvia is in a better foreign policy position now than Estonia, but the Latvians themselves are somewhat skeptical about this success." (Postimees, December 12).

Latvia

Assessing the border treaty as a major event, the majority of publications are skeptical about the prospects for bilateral cooperation. They believe that despite formal signs of rapprochement, Moscow and Riga are still unable to find a common language. "Depending on the specific situation, Russia will alternate the position of a good interrogator with the bad one ...but will not acknowledge the fact of occupation." (Diena, December 12). "Lavrov did not forget to mention that the situation with non-citizens in Latvia is not normal.'

[Stan]

"It is a huge technical and logistical challenge."

The pipeline is about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) long and it will run from Vyborg, in Russia, under the Baltic Sea, to Greifswald, in northern Germany.

Once construction is completed at the end of 2010, the pipeline will supply Russian natural gas to customers all over Europe.

There is a perception that the pipeline was a project drawn up between Russia's state energy company Gazprom and Germany, and other countries claim they were not consulted.

Poland and the Baltic states say they feel they have been bypassed, claiming they will also lose transit fees.

The new Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, says he will continue to push for the planned Russian-German gas pipeline to pass through Poland, rather than under the Baltic Sea.

Finland's environmental agency wants the pipeline to be moved further south.

"We are generally in favour of completing the pipeline project in order to have an alternative source of supply," says Jorma Korhonen, the director general of the Finnish Department for External Relations.

"But environmental factors have to be taken into account. We are concerned about the impact on the environment."

"This pipeline involves huge risks. We do not know what will happen when the seabed is disturbed," says Juha Aromaa, a spokesman for Greenpeace.

"The Baltic Sea is polluted and some of the poisonous substances on the seabed could re-surface.

"We are pushing the boundaries of surveys along such a long survey corridor."

The Gulf of Finland was heavily mined, and along with chemicals, were dumped in the sea during World War II.

[Stan]

TALLINN, January 2 (RIA Novosti) Estonian Foreign Ministry said 9,950 Russians submitted applications to Estonian embassies in December 2007, against 16,549 Russian nationals in December 2006.

On December 21, Estonia joined the Schengen agreement along with another eight countries to allow border-free internal travel, which ministry officials said could lessen the number of Russian visitors.

However, local sociologists and opposition activists said the decrease was caused by Russia's indignation at the ex-Soviet Baltic state's decision to relocate a WWII monument in the capital, Tallinn.

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Mikhail Kamynin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, called ineffective Estonia's eight-month-long investigation of Russian national, Dmitry Ganin's murder and expressed hope that those guilty of the crime would be punished this year.

"Unfortunately, I have to state that Estonian police have not so far taken effective measures to conduct an objective investigation into the murder of a Russian citizen in Estonia," Kamynin said.

[Stan]

"MOSCOW. Jan 2 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has said no serious progress has been made in investigating the killing of Russian citizen Dmitry Ganin during an outbreak of violence in Tallinn in April 2007."

We must state with regret that the Estonian authorities have not taken real measures to investigate objectively the killing of a Russian citizen in Estonia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement posted on the ministry's website on Wednesday.

Lawyer Alexander Kustov, who defends the interests of Ganin's mother, has asked the Estonian prosecutor general's office on many occasions to give him the files of the criminal investigation, but his requests have been declined for "confidentiality" reasons, he said.

Estonia's Northern District Prosecutor's Office dismissed Kamynin's statement as "untrue. "The investigation of the case is continuing. Eight months have passed since the investigation started; this is less than a year. But it is still being conducted and it is unfair to talk about any deadlock," the spokesman for the office, Gerrit Maesalu, told Interfax.

Maesalu said there had been searches and interrogations and that suspects had been identified. "At the moment, there are not 13 suspects as the media reported earlier but 14, but all of them are suspected of beating up Dmitry Ganin and his friend Oleg but not of murder," the spokesman said.

Estonia's ethnic Russian community denounced the decision as an insult to the memory of the dead.

[Stan]

TALLINN. Jan 3 (Interfax) - Estonia's government gave consideration at a meeting on Thursday to proposed legislation to enlarge the list of reasons for which an alien or a stateless person may be expelled from the country.

Today's law permits expelling and imposing a 10-year entry ban on those who have committed any of so-called "first degree" offenses - crimes such as murder, rape and robbery.

The proposed amendments to this law would extend the category to those who have committed "second degree" offenses - less serious crimes, Justice Minister Rein Lang told reporters after the government meeting.

According to the Russian Embassy in Estonia, there live about 110,000 Russian citizens and about 120,000 stateless persons in the Baltic country, whose total population is estimated at 1.34 million.

The projected amendments would "primarily apply to aliens who have repeatedly broken Estonian laws, for example have committed serious breaches of the peace or crimes against property or have been staying in Estonia illegally," Lang said.