Free Republic

Another excellent paper by Simon Tilford from the Centre for European Reform. Eurozone policy-makers – from President Sarkozy and Wolfgang Schäuble to the former President of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet – advocate that Italy and Spain should emulate the Baltic states and Ireland. These four countries, they argue, demonstrate that fiscal austerity, structural reforms and wage cuts can restore economies to growth and debt sustainability.Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ireland prove that so-called "expansionary fiscal consolidation" works and that economies can regain external trade competitiveness (and close their trade deficits) without the help of currency devaluation. Such claims are highly misleading....

Estonia is the euro's newest member and also has the eurozone's fastest growing economyMost European leaders would be delighted if their economy was growing as fast as Estonia's.The small Baltic state's economy is forecast to have grown by 8% during 2011, according to the EU's official statistics body. That's more than five times faster growth than the European Union as a whole. But Estonia is still regaining the ground it lost during a financial crisis that struck it and its Baltic neighbours in 2008-9, when a property bubble burst spectacularly, causing the economy to shrink and unemployment to rocket to...

...Turkey has grown in influence and authority as a regional power in the Western Balkans, Central and South Asia and the Horn of Africa. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been a key interlocutor, not least on Afghanistan where he made a huge personal contribution to last month's conference in Istanbul. With Turkey as host, for the first time, Afghanistan's neighbours have agreed to implement political and security measures to underpin the cause of reconciliation... Turkish economic growth has been exponential. Turkey is the 16th largest economy in the world and will assume the Presidency of the G20 in 2015....

TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia's president, a former U.S. citizen, is likely to win re-election Monday in a country whose economy stands out as one of the most stable in the debt-ridden 17-nation eurozone.

The man who was killed during a shootout with police armed response units in the Defense Ministry building in Tallinn earlier today was member of the Estonian United Left Party and was familiar to the police, Deputy Director of the Security Police KAPO, Erik Heldna, said at a press conference. As far as it is now known, Karen Drambjan (born 1954) was not in any way connected to the Defense Forces or the Ministry of Defense. It is also known that he did not take his own life as earlier reported by the Prosecutor's Office, but was killed during the...

-excerpt- Spokesman Peeter Kuimet said Thursday that there had been an "incident involving guns" inside the ministry and that police were on the scene in downtown Tallinn, the country's capital.

- Perhaps, but Northern Europe didn't get rich by adopting policies resembling what Obama today is doing to the US.

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

ESTONIA'S centre-right government has won a fresh mandate in a general election, as voters gave it the thumbs up for steering the Baltic state out of a breathtaking recession. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's two-party coalition won 56 seats in Estonia's 101-member parliament, while two centre-left opposition parties took 45, results from the national electoral commission showed. "The voters have had their say," Mr Ansip said. The coalition did not suffer ballot-box punishment for the biting austerity drive it launched as the global economic crisis struck the nation of 1.3 million. Mr Ansip's Reform Party won 33 seats, up three on...

On Saturday, Estonia completes its trip from Soviet republic to full-fledged member of the euro zone. In the first minutes of the new year, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip will slide a bank card into an automated teller machine installed for the occasion in front of the opera house here in the capital. He will withdraw some euro bills, and Estonia will officially become the 17th member of the zone.

In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious — or dangerous — than timber. Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The...

TALLINN, Estonia — The wrecks of three British warships sunk after World War I off the coast of a Baltic Sea island have been found, Estonia's military announced Monday. Using state-of-the-art sonar equipment, an Estonian naval vessel last week located the wrecks of HMS Cassandra, HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle near the Estonian island of Saaremaa, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Tallinn. "We are convinced that these (wrecks) are ... those perished British vessels," Cmdr. Ivo Vark said in a statement. He said that the last coordinates of the vessels — reported by then British squadron...

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: International Hacker Arraigned After Extradition Elaborate Scheme Stole over $9.4 Million from Credit Card Processor ATLANTA, GA—SERGEI TŠURIKOV, 26, of Tallinn, Estonia, has been extradited to the United States. TŠURIKOV appeared today and was arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge E. Clayton Scofield III, on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. TŠURIKOV was indicted by a federal grand jury on these charges on November 10, 2010, along with VIKTOR PLESHCHUK, 29, of St. Petersburg, Russia; OLEG COVELIN,...

OK, I admit, I found out about this place because economic development -- in this case, limestone quarries to supply gravel for roads -- threatens this unique geological and hydrological site/phenomenon/tourist attraction. And I guess it does bug me when something of national (indeed, international) geological, hydrological, historical, and traditional value can be so undervalued. So, I provide the basic setting, read the links in the comment if you want. The Witch's Well in the Northern Estonia karst area is in reality a karst spring that starts gushing forth during the spring floods when the underground Tuhala River can no...

April 30, military contingents conducting the QRA Baltic Air-policing mission will change during a ceremony at the LAF Siauliai Air Base: Polish Air Contingent with four MiG-29 will replace French soldiers. Polish forces are deploying air assets for the Baltic Air-policing mission for the third time (after service on January-March 2006 and March-June 2008 with MiG-29 fighter-jets). The majority of the present shift come from the 23rd Air Base and the 1st Tactical Squadron of the Polish Air Force based in Minsk Mazowiecki near Warsaw. The third Polish rotation named „Eagle 3" will comprise 100 troops, 8 of them pilots....

For years, from his senior position in Estonia's Defense Ministry, Herman Simm leaked highly sensitive NATO intelligence and the names of Western spies to Russia's foreign intelligence service. In a classified damage analysis, NATO concludes that the former KGB colonel was one of the "most damaging" spies in the history of the alliance.

Colonel Sebastien Vallette swings back in his desk chair, minutes after landing his Mirage fighter on a Soviet-era runway. A detailed map on his wall shows Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, flanked by bold warnings: "Do Not Enter Russian Airspace". For six years, NATO allies have taken turns patrolling the airspace of the three Baltic states, minnows which won freedom from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and have testy ties with Moscow. Vallette and six other French flyers under his command are the current eyes in the sky. "The point about airspace sovereignty is to know who's doing what in...

Polish cargo plane falls onto ice of Lake Ülemiste in Estonia Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 18.03.2010.Print version Polish cargo plane An-26 made an emergency landing on the ice of Lake Ülemiste in Tallinn on Thursday due to technical problems; no one was injured in the accident. The accident happened at 10.18 a.m. and it was a Polish transport plane used by DHL that had come from Finland. There were four crew members and two cargo attendants on board the plane. One 60-year-old man was taken to hospital with a concussion, others were not injured. Economy and communications ministry spokesman Kalev...

France's plan to sell Moscow four warships has triggered anger in former Soviet republics now firmly anchored in the European Union and NATO, fearful their new western allies underestimate the Kremlin. In interviews with AFP, top officials in the Baltic states questioned France's willingness to go ahead with what would be an unprecedented transfer of advanced military technology by a NATO member to Russia. They insisted that, while they too want better ties with their Soviet-era master, Paris's stance is wrong-headed and sends the wrong signal to a Moscow government already all-too keen to assert itself in its region. France...

Lutheran Churches in Eastern Europe have added their voices to those of Lutherans worldwide who are critical of the decisions of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to endorse same-sex unions and to allow pastors to be in same-sex sexual relationships. The leaders of the Lutheran Churches in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania met Nov. 3-4. The bishops issued a message noting the crisis of faith and fellowship caused by the actions of the ELCA and the Church of Sweden in endorsing same-sex sexual relationships. These churches are all members of the Lutheran World Federation. “At the present time a common witness...

Recycling posters featuring the picture of US President Barack Obama have reportedly been spotted on garbage cans at the Estonian capital's airport. Obama's photograph is encircled with the three arrows that symbolize recycling and encourages consumers with his campaign slogan "Yes, We Can," Russia Today (RT) reported citing a report at delfi.ee. Eesti Pakendiringlus, an Estonian recycled packaging company, is stressing on the “can” with a pun on the word's other meaning tin.

Baltic economies - a painful downfall after years of prosperity In the first six months of 2009, the Baltic states' GDP shrank by nearly 20%, which was the worst result in Europe. As a consequence of job cuts in private enterprises and the public sector, the unemployment level has tripled in comparison with the preceding year to exceed 15% in all three countries. It is still unclear from the economic data for the past few months whether recession in the Baltic states will continue to worsen. However, it seems that the economic indices will not fall so rapidly in the...

Energy: While members of Congress take vacations their constituents can no longer afford, a country prepares to end its dependence on foreign oil by extracting supplies from shale rock. It's not the U.S. It's in the Middle East.Jordan imports 95% of its oil. Unlike the U.S., the desert kingdom plans on doing something about it. It does not, however, plan to cover its flat open spaces with solar panels or wind farms. It's going to do something the Democratic Congress has refused to do — get oil from its abundant shale rock. On Sunday, Maher Hjazin, head of the Jordanian...

An Open Letter to the Obama Administration from Central and Eastern Europe 2009-07-15 by Valdas Adamkus, Martin Butora, Emil Constantinescu, Pavol Demes, Lubos Dobrovsky, Matyas Eorsi, Istvan Gyarmati, Vaclav Havel, Rastislav Kacer, Sandra Kalniete, Karel Schwarzenberg, Michal Kovac, Ivan Krastev, Alexander Kwasniewski, Mart Laar, Kadri Liik, Janos Martonyi. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Adam Rotfeld, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Alexandr Vondra, Lech Walesa. We have written this letter because, as Central and Eastern European (CEE) intellectuals and former policymakers, we care deeply about the future of the transatlantic relationship as well as the future quality of relations between the United States and the countries of...

HELSINKI (AFP) — Finland put an end to Estonia's 11-year reign and took gold and bronze on Saturday at the annual Wife-Carrying World Championships held in Sonkajaervi, central Finland, organisers said. Taisto Miettinen raced through a 250-metre (273-yard) course with two hurdles and a pool in 62 seconds, carrying Kristiina Haapanen on his back. The winners beat Estonia's Alar Voogla and Kristi Viltrop by 0.1 seconds. Miettinen has been attending the competition for a decade now and said he was pleased to finally win. "A couple of times I have lost by 0.1 seconds and I have stumbled. Our win...

Since Estonia regained independence, the birth rate of Estonians has been negative, but in 2008, nearly 600 Estonians more were born than died, writes EPL Online/LETA. The birth rate of the entire population of Estonia remained negative, however – in 2008, Estonia lost 647 residents. In the year 1992 – the first year after regaining of independence – Estonians' birth rate was minus 755, a year later the birth rate among Estonians had fallen to minus 2,731. The year 1994 was the worst one in terms of birth rate since regaining of independence – 4,323 persons more died than were...

Nato and Russia traded accusations yesterday after the alliance accused Moscow of breaking the peace agreement that ended the war with Georgia, a day after it expelled two Russian diplomats in a spying row. At a ceremony in the Kremlin yesterday Russia assumed formal control of the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in agreements signed by President Medvedev with the leaders of Georgia’s two breakaway regions. The signing elicited a sharp response from Nato, which said that the treaties were in “clear contravention” of the ceasefire brokered by President Sarkozy of France to end the war between Russia and...

Riga - The economic gloom afflicting the Baltic states got several shades darker Tuesday with a fresh forecasts revising expectations downwards. Until mid-2007 the so-called 'Baltic Tigers' of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia recorded Europe's fastest growth rates, but their economies have stalled spectacularly in the wake of the global downturn. According to a spring forecast from the Estonian Ministry of Finance, the economy in the smallest of the Baltic states will contract by 8.5 percent in 2009. "Estonia is undoubtedly at a difficult time. At the same time this gives us a real opportunity to use the downturn to create...

An Estonian Army Soldier holds his Order of the Spur certificate, a traditional U.S. Army cavalry award, during a farewell ceremony at Camp Taji, northwest of Baghdad, Dec. 12. The Estonian Soldiers completed their six-month tour in Iraq, during which they served as a vital force in eroding the capabilities of enemy forces in the area by exploiting weapons caches. Due to the increased security and stability in Iraq, the Republic of Estonia has transitioned its forces from Coalition operations to the NATO training mission in Iraq. Photo by Spc. Christopher Long. BAGHDAD — Due to the increased security and...

The Georgia Watershed By Leon Aron Posted: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 RUSSIAN OUTLOOK AEI Online   Publication Date: November 12, 2008 Fall 2008On August 8, following Georgia's reckless attack on the Russia-supported separatist enclave of South Ossetia, Russia invaded Georgia. For the first time in post-Soviet history, Russian troops crossed the internationally recognized border of a sovereign neighboring state. Yet there were several other lines that may have been crossed. This short war looks more and more like a culmination and an emblem of the troubling evolution in the Kremlin's values and priorities and, by extension, its vision of the...

ECHOES OF the Cold War have returned to Nato headquarters in Brussels after an Estonian general was unmasked as a “sleeper� spy who passed top secret alliance information to Moscow. Herman Simm (61), a retired official in Estonia’s defence ministry, has been arrested along with his wife on suspicion that they were recruited by KGB officers before the collapse of the Soviet Union. After Estonia’s independence in 1991, state prosecutors believe Mr Simm made contact with the KGB’s successor foreign intelligence agency, the SVR. The former police chief was the perfectly placed mole: between 1995 and 2006 he helped set...

A spy at the heart of Nato may have passed secrets on the US missile shield and cyber-defence to Russian Intelligence, it has emerged. Herman Simm, 61, an Estonian defence ministry official who was arrested in September, was responsible for handling all of his country's classified information at Nato, giving him access to every top-secret graded document from other alliance countries. He was recruited by the Russians in the late 1980s and has been charged in Estonia with supplying information to a foreign power. Several investigation teams from both the EU and Nato, under the supervision of a US officer,...

The upcoming meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and his onetime rival Sen. John McCain was set in motion during a phone call over the weekend between Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain's closest friend. In an interview Friday, Graham said that Obama requested the meeting during a 20-minute phone call that the South Carolina senator described as a "pleasant" discussion about how they could work together effectively. "We just talked about the desire to find something meaningful to work on," Graham said. "He was very nice to me, said that he considered me a serious, reform-minded senator that he...

Nato's top military commander has demanded the authority to draw up detailed military plans to defend former Soviet bloc members for the first time since the alliance expanded eastward. Russia's offensive in Georgia in August exposed the dangers of the Western alliance's lack of contingency plans against an invasion on its eastern flanks. Political leaders from the Baltics and Eastern Europe have subsequently demanded that Nato fulfil the requirements implied by its "Chapter 5" commitment to defend the territorial integrity of all its members. General James Craddock, Nato's Supreme Commander, has asked for the political authority to draw up contingency...

ST. PETERSBURG, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - Two farms in north-east Estonia have joined forces to declare an independent "Soviet republic" and intend to seek Russia's recognition, a Russian communist organization said on Wednesday. "We no longer want to live in bourgeois Estonia, where nobody cares about the common people...with raging unemployment and corruption, and where everything depends on NATO and the Americans," Russian communists from St Petersburg, who are assisting the 'republic,' quoted its founder, Andres Tamm, as saying. Residents and founders of the 'Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic' have already formed a national 'Soviet government,' a police force, and...

Estonia has already sent around 50 army reservists to Georgia (though on a voluntary, non-uniformed basis) to conduct humanitarian work and now it has emerged that Estonia is also lending its cyber-warfare expertise to the Georgian cause. The Estonian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it is sending two of its leading cyber-defense experts to Tbilisi to help stave off cyber-attacks emanating in Russia. Estonia successfully defended itself against similar attacks during the 'bronze soldier' riots of 2007. The experts are likely to be part of the new NATO cyber-defense center established in Tallinn, and if so, the move would be...

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- The leaders of a former Eastern Bloc nation and four former Soviet republics showed support for Georgia in its conflict with Russia at a massive rally in Georgia's capital Tuesday night. The presidents' appearances came shortly before France's leader announced that Georgia had accepted a Russian-French plan to end the conflict. Thousands cheered as the presidents of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia stood with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, late Tuesday.

Estonia's experience may be of interest in assessing how best Georgia and Moldova should shape their policies vis-à-vis Russia. When Estonia gained independence in 1991 following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Moscow was understandably angry. It sought to create a picture in the western media of a land with huge economic problems, unsuitable for investment. Estonia was indeed poor, and its main exports were scrap metal and timber, but its economy was growing. Russia supported a so-called "autonomy-movement" in north-east Estonia, which is populated mostly by people who settled there during Soviet times. When Estonia stood firm against this,...

WARSAW (AFP)--The presidents of five ex-communist countries will travel to Georgia to back Georgia in its war with Russia, a senior aide to Poland's President Lech Kaczynski told AFP Monday.

Russia's neighbours put on edge by war threat (AFP) 10 August 2008 WARSAW - The conflict between Georgia and Russia has stunned eastern European nations who can still feel the scars of their domination by the former Soviet Union. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland called on the European Union and NATO to oppose Russia's "imperialist" policy towards Georgia. And even countries such as Sweden, which was not part of the Soviet bloc, expressed extreme concern at the conflict, making comparisons to Adolf Hitler's tactics as leader of Nazi Germany. Russia has in turn been vocal in criticising neighbours such as...

BRUSSELS -- Can communism be compared to Nazism? Does communism's record deserve as unequivocal a condemnation as that of Nazism? And should communism's modern-day adherents and apologists be rejected as firmly by Europe's political mainstream as those of Nazism? The debate over the historical record of communism simmers on in the European Union. Forced onto the bloc's agenda by its new ex-communist member states, the issue was most recently broached at a European Parliament debate in Strasbourg on April 21. Reflecting deep-seated divisions among member states and political camps, the parliament ultimately failed to agree on a common declaration. Some...

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

Mart Laar, two-time Prime Minister of Estonia, has been credited with lifting the small Baltic nation out of economic and social collapse under communism to becoming a prosperous, free society. Currently a member of the Estonian Parliament, Laar first became Prime Minister of Estonia at age 32. During his tenure from 1992-1994, he initiated sweeping economic reforms that included unilateral free trade, privatization, and the introduction of the world's first flat tax. Laar was re-elected in 1999 and served until 2002. Known as the Baltic Tiger, in the past two decades Estonia has experienced unprecedented economic growth and has dramatically...

TALLINN - Estonian and Russian border guards shut down a pipeline through which criminals attempted to pump alcohol from north-eastern Russia into north-western Estonia over the River Narva. A spokesman for the Estonian Border Guard Board told the Baltic News Service (BNS) that the hose from Ivangorod, Russia, to Narva, a mostly Russian enclave in Estonia, was discovered this week after a tip-off and Estonian border guards severed the hose passing over the 300-metre-wide river. On the Russian side of the river, customs officials caught a local man red-handed with an 800-litre drum of alcohol and a hose in the...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the European Union was ignoring moves by the bloc's members Estonia and Latvia to glorify Nazism. Putin, speaking in the Kremlin to members of the European Jewish Congress, said he was shocked by an annual Waffen SS parade which took place in Latvia last March. "Some facts which we come up against in several countries of Eastern Europe have provoked open astonishment and incomprehension," Putin said on national television. "The activities of the Latvian and Estonian authorities openly connive at the glorification of Nazis and their accomplices. But these facts...

10 October 2007, 12:39 Russian clerics leave meeting on Orthodox-Catholic dialogue over rifts Moscow, October 10, Interfax - A delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate on Tuesday left a meeting of the Mixed Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theologian Dialogue, which opened in Ravenna, Italy. "Following their arrival in Ravenna the Orthodox delegation learned that representatives of the so-called Estonian Apostolic Church, formed in 1996 by the Constantinople Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate, had been entered on the list of delegates," bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, the Russian Church's envoy in Europe and a member of the Mixed...

TALLINN - Doudou Diene, the United Nations special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, has recommended that Estonia move toward a multilingual society with more than one official language. Diene, who is drawing up a report on the Baltic states due to be delivered next year, told reporters Sep. 28 that Estonia should move toward a multicultural and multilingual society. "The requirement to be able to speak Estonian is normal," said the Senegalese, adding that all Estonian citizens had to be able to speak the language. At the same time, the special rapporteur added...

TALLINN/VILNIUS - Estonia's ruling Reform Party is preparing an amendment to allow people to vote by mobile telephone. The party presented its ‘m-voting’ proposals Sep. 27 in order to prepare a bill along with its other coalition partners next week. If the partners give the initiative the thumbs up the legislation will be sent to parliament. The head of the Reformist faction, Keit Pentus, said Estonia has always been at the forefront of information technology innovation. In her words, the use of an ID card linked to a cell phone is no longer fantasy, and m-voting would make involvement in...

TALLINN/VILNIUS - Estonia's ruling Reform Party is preparing an amendment to allow people to vote by mobile telephone. The party presented its ‘m-voting’ proposals Sep. 27 in order to prepare a bill along with its other coalition partners next week. If the partners give the initiative the thumbs up the legislation will be sent to parliament. The head of the Reformist faction, Keit Pentus, said Estonia has always been at the forefront of information technology innovation. In her words, the use of an ID card linked to a cell phone is no longer fantasy, and m-voting would make involvement in...

ESTONIA WILL NOT ALLOW THE NORD STREAM PIPELINE ON ITS SEABED By Vladimir Socor Thursday, September 27, 2007 Estonia's government has turned down the Russo-German company Nord Stream's request to survey the seabed off the Estonian coast. The survey was to precede the construction of the Russian gas pipeline on the Baltic seabed to Germany for Gazprom. The Estonian coalition government took the decision unanimously on September 21. It has met with general understanding in the European Union and in German editorial pages since then, contrary to previous attempts by interested German circles to portray this Gazprom-led project as a...