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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Disguise and deception are permanent fixtures in history.
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The new European Commission that took office in early December has set climate policy as its top priority. A carbon-neutral Europe may become the goal that unites the EU and strengthens its global position. On the other hand, if the ambitious goals prove unrealistic, they may instead aggravate the EU’s internal splits and weaken its credibility.
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Ukrinform and ICDS organised a public roundtable discussion entitled “National Resilience: New Approaches to Solving Old Problems” on 12 December 2019 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
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In November 2019, more than 20 representatives of various partner organisations, local municipalities and regions of the South-East of Ukraine, journalists, public figures, opinion leaders and civil experts in the field of communications and information security visited Estonia to get acquainted with the Estonian colleagues and exchange experiences, as well as discuss ideas for joint projects.
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On 13 October 2019, Hungary held its municipal and local elections, which resulted in opposition parties taking over Budapest as well as several countryside cities.
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Finland joined Nordic cooperation in the 1930s and has valued being part of the Nordic countries ever since. Estonia has striven to be a member of the prestigious Nordic club since the 1990s. Today, the political cultures of Finland and Estonia share a surprisingly large number of common features, although there are also differences. The entrenchment of democratic values among citizens is at a good average European level in both, but lower than in other Nordic countries.
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A sharp change of the electorate’s mood in a democracy governed by the rule of law should result in the change of political rulers following elections.
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Following March’s general elections, which produced an unexpected governing coalition, Estonian society still reels between confusion, disappointment and disagreement.
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“It’s straight out of the Trump playbook,” commented Sven Sakkov, director of the International Centre for Defense and Security Tallinn to Kimberly Dozier, the Daily Beast, the rise and acting of Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE) at the annual Lennart Meri Conference that also had a panel discussion on the siren calls of populism.
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