This report revisits the spring 2007 crisis in Estonia, centred on the World War II memorial known as the Bronze Soldier statue. The crisis is well-known both in Estonia and abroad. It was one of the first wake-up calls to the cooling of relations between Russia and the West. It also involved the first use of wide-ranging cyber-attacks against a state.
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In the Covid-19 crisis, the Finnish government took its decisions based on the national interest and considering the wellbeing of its citizens. This is how it would behave in possible future crises, which may be of a different nature. Estonia should avoid too high expectations of its northern neighbour.
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This policy paper assesses the involvement of volunteers acting in the public interest under Estonian law in the development of key characteristics of a broad security concept and reflects the main ongoing discussion points for widening their potential for ensuring collective security and public safety.
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On 8–9 May, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. One of the highlights of this occasion was supposed to be a magnificent military parade in Moscow, with a number of world leaders attending to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazism. However, the Covid-19 pandemic forced Russia to postpone the parade. It also inspired Estonia to organise an innovative high-level event at the UN that can be considered a success in both organisational and substantive terms.
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In January 2020, Estonia became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for a two-year term. The international environment, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly challenging for multilateral cooperation and a rules-based global order. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the lack of global leadership, previously provided by the US, and inability of the UNSC to mobilise international cooperation.
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ETV+, the Estonian National Broadcast’s TV-channel targeting Estonia’s Russian minority, was launched in 2015 after the occupation and annexation of Crimea as it became evident that letting Estonia’s Russian minority live solely in the Russian media space would pose a security risk.
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In recent months Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between continental Norway and the North Pole, has attracted more interest than usual.
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When Estonia regained independence in August 1991, it was not within the borders in which it was born in February 1920 as a subject of international law under the Tartu Peace Treaty, and in which it was occupied and unlawfully annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940.
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Sputnik Eesti has ceased activity in Estonia after Estonian law-enforcement threatened to prosecute its staff members under EU sanctions against Russia.
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Until recently, the Russian Orthodox Church was a subject that interested few outside expert circles. That dramatically changed in late 2018 when the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted autocephaly (independence) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The reverberations of this decision — religious, political and geopolitcal — underscore the importance that the Church once again plays in Russian policy.
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