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The Russian authorities have been accused of buying time on illegal botnets to launch a denial-of-service attack against Estonia. The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA), which comprises arms groups and financial services companies, claims to have uncovered evidence of alleged collusion between Russia and the botnet owners. ATCA said that the botnets were only rented for a short period to boost the number of attacking computers to over a million. Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the attacks. "The attackers used a giant network of enslaved computers on 9 May, perhaps as many as one million in places as...

Cyberwars - in which one side takes out the other's economy and government by sabotaging its IT infrastructure - have two differences from standard wars. The first is that cyberwars are deniable, as Vladimir Putin has demonstrated. He has attacked Estonia, our NATO ally, but denies that he has done anything of the sort. NATO does not wish to acknowledge that one of its members has been attacked, because this would impose an obligation of retaliation. The second advantage is that cyberwars are asymmetric. A group of western hackers could hit the Russian government with or without a lead being...

You know about the war, right? The war in which a nuclear-armed near superpower with 150 million inhabitants made an unprovoked attack on a neighbouring country with 1% of its population? That would be an attack on a NATO member, which all other NATO members are obligated to treat as an attack on them all. In terms of moral and legal obligations, the UK, the USA, Germany . . . in fact all NATO members, have been attacked by Russia. Here is what British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had to say about the subject: And here is what US Secretary...

Nothing seems to make President Vladimir Putin angrier these days than Estonia. Once it was Chechnya that inspired blustery speeches and sent sparks flying at news conferences. Journalists who dared to question the war were met with bursts of hostility. One, a French reporter, was famously invited to Moscow to be circumcised. Criticism of Kremlin policy in Chechnya still makes Putin steam, but Estonia is the new hot-button issue. During a joint news conference with European Union leaders in Samara on Friday, Putin twice diverged from the question he was asked to return to the issue of Estonia. Both times...

Russia slams the door on all things Estonian War monument dispute escalates into boycott By Erika Niedowski sun Foreign Reporter Originally published May 21, 2007 MOSCOW // More than a half-dozen types of cheese disappeared from behind deli counters. Small bottles of chili powder, garlic seasoning and lemon pepper - indeed, every spice with the blue Santa Maria label - vanished from supermarket shelves. Old Tallinn liqueur, a sweet staple in a punchy cocktail called the hammer and sickle, suddenly was harder to come by. The word had come down from on high: Estonian products are no longer welcome in...

The computer attacks, apparently originating in Russia, first hit the Web site of Estonia’s prime minister on April 27, the day the country was mired in protest and violence. The president’s site went down, too, and soon so did those of several departments in a wired country that touts its paperless government and likes to call itself E-stonia. Then the attacks, coming in waves, began to strike newspapers and television stations, then schools and finally banks, raising fears that what was initially a nuisance could have economic consequences. The attacks have peaked and tapered off since then, but they have...

As Estonia appeals to its Nato and EU partners for help against cyber-attacks it links to Russia, the BBC News website's Patrick Jackson investigates who may be responsible. One Estonian website was defaced to show a Soviet soldier Estonia, one of the most internet-savvy states in the European Union, has been under sustained attack from hackers since the ethnic Russian riots sparked in late April by its removal of a Soviet war memorial from Tallinn city centre. Websites of the tiny Baltic state's government, political parties, media and business community have had to shut down temporarily after being hit...

Courting the Russian Mammoth Russia and the European Union have engaged in a diplomatic courting ritual this week as if between equal partners, trying to clear the way for a trade and energy summit on Friday. But who, exactly, needs who? German commentators whiff an elephant in the room. A quick unscheduled trip to Moscow yesterday by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier appeared to thaw relations between Russia and the European Union not at all -- which means a trade and energy summit between the EU and Moscow on Friday may amount to a lot of hot air. Steinmeier sounded...

Russia accused of cyberwar to disable Estonia 17 May 2007 09:15 A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the Western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications. While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a row that erupted at the end of last month over the Estonians' removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn, the country has been subjected to a barrage...

Parliament, ministries, banks, media targeted Nato experts sent in to strengthen defences A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications. While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, (snip) disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies. Nato has dispatched some of its top cyber-terrorism experts to Tallinn to investigate and to help the Estonians...

Moscow insists rows with Poland, Estonia not EU issue May 16, 2007, 11:31 GMT Moscow - The Kremlin on Wednesday denied there was a crisis in EU-Russia relations and said current diplomatic rows between Moscow and nations such as Poland and Estonia should not cloud this week's EU-Russia summit. Certain new EU members had 'young and unprofessional' governments who wished to air their own 'complexes' on an EU-Russia level, the Kremlin's EU envoy Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters in Moscow. 'Our old and trusted EU partners also recognize this,' Yastrzhembsky said following talks the previous day with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister...

May 06, 2007 Baltic Times The Bronze Soldier monument, whose relocation at the end of April sparked the worst civil unrest Estonia has seen in years and led to a major diplomatic row with Russia, has now become a magnet for Finns and other tourists, Postimees Online reports. The monument was set up and opened to the public in its new location in Tallinn’s Garrison Cemetery on April 30. When the Bronze Soldier stood in its original location, it didn’t attract interest from foreign tourists, but now visitors to the capital are rushing out to get their photos taken in...

RUSSIA is a strong, sovereign and prosperous country, surrounded by enemies and traitors who are bent on undermining its geopolitical power. Upstarts such as Estonia and Poland are trying to spoil Russia’s far more important relationships with proper European countries, such as Germany or France. The freshly-baked European Union (EU) members act on the instructions of America, a hypocritical and arrogant dictator of the world order, which pretends to be a democracy but in fact is closer to the Third Reich. This, in short and perhaps a bit exaggerated, is the view of Europe from behind the Kremlin wall, intensified...

Healing Soviet Wounds The Unsure Revival of Estonia By: Benjamin D. Wiker Crisis Magazine April 15, 2007 Mu süda, ärka üles ja kiida Loojat lauldes, Kes kõik head meile annab ja muret ikka kannab. Kui magama ma heitsin, end Isa sülle peitsin, mind saatan püüdis neelda, kuid Jumal võttis keelda. Wake up, my heart, and sing praise to the Creator Who gives us all good things and bears all our worries. When I went to sleep, I hid myself in my Father’s arms. Satan tried to swallow me but God forbade it. Such are the opening two stanzas of Estonia’s...

The results of the 2007 edition of IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook highlight a big shake-up in economic and business power. Emerging nations are quickly catching up in competitiveness. New companies and new brands are appearing all over the world. They now contest the long-standing competitive supremacy of industrialized nations. “This could lead to an increase in protectionist measures in Europe and the US”, says Professor Stéphane Garelli, Director of IMD’s World Competitiveness Center. Of the 55 economies ranked by IMD, the US still ranks No. 1 in 2007, closely followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. However, 40 economies are now...

Estonia has faced down Russian rioters. But its websites are still under attack FOR a small, high-tech country such as Estonia, the internet is vital. But for the past two weeks Estonia's state websites (and some private ones) have been hit by “denial of service” attacks, in which a target site is bombarded with so many bogus requests for information that it crashes. The internet warfare broke out on April 27th, amid a furious row between Estonia and Russia over the removal of a Soviet war monument from the centre of the capital, Tallinn, to a military cemetery. The move...

Vladimir Putin needs a history lesson. At a parade in Red Square yesterday commemorating the end of the Second World War, the Russian president accused the Estonian government of belittling that conflict, desecrating a monument to war heroes, insulting its own people and sowing distrust between nations. This absurd outburst was triggered by the transfer last month of the Soviet "Bronze Soldier" memorial from the centre of Tallinn to the main military cemetery. Its removal has led to two nights of rioting, the siege of the Estonian embassy in Moscow and the closure, allegedly for repairs, of railway lines to...

Less than fifteen years after the last Soviet troops pulled out of the Baltic States, a new survey has shown that young Swedes are still in the dark about the fate of its neighbours behind the Iron Curtain. A poll carried out by Demoskop on behalf of the Organization for Information on Communism (Föreningen för upplysning om kommunismen - UOK) found that 90 percent of Swedes between the ages of 15 and 20 had never heard of the Gulag. This can be contrasted with the 95 percent who knew of Auschwitz. "Unfortunately we were not at all surprised by the...

Russia's Putin jabs at Estonia at WW2 parade By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin made a thinly veiled attack on neighbouring Estonia on Wednesday during a parade on Red Square marking the anniversary of the World War Two victory over Nazi Germany. Estonia's removal of a Red Army monument last month from the centre of Tallinn infuriated the Kremlin and sparked violence in the Estonian capital as ethnic Russians rioted. Without naming Estonia, Putin made a clear reference to the removal of the statue. "Those who are trying today to belittle this invaluable experience, those who...

As former Soviet republics celebrate Victory Day this week, there is a lingering mood that the war is still on in the eyes of Moscow. The relocation of the Tallinn Bronze Soldier became the focus of a coordinated protest and media campaign that saw violence erupt in Estonia’s capital city and embassy in Moscow. Pro-Russian protesters and media argued that moving the Soviet memorial to a cemetery was tantamount to fascism. Estonians viewed Soviet troops as occupiers. While this issue has sparked large debate, the dangerous hypocrisy lies in the fact that President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is not tackling a...

Ex-Chancellor Schröder defends Putin in Helsinki Former German leader calls for continuity of Ostpolitik and construction of undersea pipeline Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is adhering to his claim from a few years aback, according to which Vladimir Putin is a good democrat. "I have not changed my characterisation of the Russian President, and I will not take my words back", Schröder said at a press conference in Helsinki on Monday. Schröder also refused to go retract a statement that had angered Estonia, according to which the removal of the Soviet-era statue of a soldier from the centre of Tallinn...

Geopolitics: A strategic shift on Europe's northern tier is shaping up fast. With Russia trying to halt a missile shield and intimidating Estonia, Sweden and Finland are starting to rethink neutrality. It shows seriousness. For about a decade, conventional wisdom held that the end of the Cold War made NATO irrelevant. But out on the frontier of Western civilization, in the farthest Nordic states of Sweden and Finland, a different picture is emerging as an old predator rises from the East. Russia's recent moves in the region have forced them to take a new look at defense alliances they once...

Estonia Hampers Russian Gas Pipeline Project 16:11, 07/05/2007 Russia and Estonia exchanged another set of accusations late last week, showing that the ongoing conflict is far from being over. Meanwhile, Tallinn has found a tool to retaliate. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip declined to meet former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to discuss participation in a Russian gas pipeline, which means the project implementation will slow down. Russian and Estonian official kept the argument sentiment hot over the weekend as the Russian Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov demanded an apology for the removal of the Bronze Soldier statue in Tallinn....

Russian youth protest Poland’s Estonia support 08.05.2007 About 40 youth organization activists have staged a picket at the Polish embassy in Moscow to protest against Poland’s support for Estonia which chose to move a monument to Soviet soldiers from the center of its capital Tallin. The picketers criticized Warsaw’s plans to adopt a law to dismantle communist-era monuments in Poland, which they see as tantamount to destroying monuments honoring Soviet troops.

Poland's policy on monuments domestic affair - PM 08/ 05/ 2007 WARSAW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) - No nation has the right to tell Poland how to name streets or what monuments to unveil in Polish cities, the country's prime minister said Tuesday. Jaroslaw Kaczynski hailed Brussels' position that the removal of a Soviet WWII memorial from central Tallinn late April, which sparked protests in the Estonian capital and Moscow, was Estonia's domestic affair. "It is Estonia's sovereign right to decide which monuments to have, as it is Poland's," Kaczynski said. Poland's Culture Ministry has been drafting a bill for...

Responding to Russia’s bullying of Estonia (see EDM, April 27, May 1, 3) the U.S. White House has invited Estonian President Toomas Ilves to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush on June 25 in Washington. The invitation itself, and the announcement’s timing in May, is the strongest demonstration of support for Estonia against Russia’s escalating threats since April 26. Estonia’s presidential office as well as the ambassador to the United States, Juri Luik, remarked that the invitation validates Estonia’s policy choices: democracy and freedom as Western values at home, participation in NATO-led peacekeeping missions, and assistance to countries in...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized the removal from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery by the Estonian government late last week of a Soviet memorial commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, which had stood for decades in the center of the Estonian capital. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the removal of the monument minimizes the severity of the crimes of the Holocaust in Estonia and insults the Nazis‘victims in the country. According to Zuroff: “While the Center unequivocally condemns the crimes committed against...

The United States backed Estonia Thursday in its escalating dispute with Russia over the removal of a Soviet war memorial, saying it was the Baltic state's internal affair and urging dialogue. Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: ''We have urged the Estonian and Russian governments to maintain dialogue and respect for the strong feelings on both sides.'' Casey also expressed concern ''about continuing reports of violence and harassment, including harassment of Estonian diplomatic personnel and premises, in Moscow.'' The Estonian Embassy in Moscow has been under siege by pro-Kremlin youth activists since the removal last week of a...

Russians rioted in Tallinn and other Estonian cities earlier this week, and are now harassing the tiny country's diplomats in Moscow and calling for a trade blockade. Their stated grievance is the removal of a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn. The real inspiration for this little cold war comes from the Kremlin. The Estonian government transferred the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier and exhumed remains of Soviet troops to a military cemetery near the capital. Estonians are generous to keep them at all. The Soviets annexed their country in 1940 and only let go 51 years later....

Last Thursday, Estonia's leaders decided to move an imposing Soviet war memorial from a dominant spot in Estonia's capital of Tallinn. Russian officials denounced the removal of the ugly Stalinist relic as "sacrilegious." The memorial was put there by Soviet troops who invaded and annexed Estonia as part of Josef Stalin's and Adolf Hitler's secret 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact to divide up Europe. Estonia's forced incorporation into the Soviet Union cost it five decades of freedom until it finally broke free in 1991. ...Russians resent Estonia's exit from the Soviet Union and its success afterward. Hence, the harsh — and illegitimate...

Modern analysis of 20th century Russian history indicates that the struggle of Russia vs. Germany in WWII was not a struggle for the glory of socialism. It was in defense of Mother Russia. This statue isn't so much about defiling the communist past. It is a direct assault on the very essence of what "Russia" and "Russian" is.

moscow • Russia halted deliveries of oil products to Estonia yesterday in a move that coincided with protests in Moscow over the Baltic state’s relocation of a Soviet war memorial. The cut-off was likely to revive Western fears the Kremlin is using its energy might as a political weapon against ex-Soviet neighbours. Russia’s state rail monopoly said it planned to carry out maintenance on the rail link to Estonia, disrupting supplies. Coal exporters said Russian railways had also halted exports of steam coal via Estonia for this month, totalling up to 900,000 tonnes, citing a shortage of railway wagons. They...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Deliveries of Russian oil products to Estonia may be disrupted, Russia's state railway operator said on Wednesday against the backdrop of a furious political row with the Baltic state over a World War Two monument. Russian state railways said planned maintenance on the railway link could lead to disruption in the delivery of oil products. Russia has in the past been accused of using its energy resources as a political weapon against its neighbors. "We haven't imposed any economic sanctions against Estonia and have no plans to do so. But from May 1, we plan repair works....

MOSCOW - Young Russians staged raucous protests in Moscow on Wednesday to denounce neighboring Estonia for removing a Soviet war memorial from its capital, and the Estonian ambassador said pro-Kremlin activists tried to attack her as she arrived at a news conference. Sweden said its ambassador also was assaulted as he left the Estonian Embassy after a meeting Wednesday, saying protesters surrounding the compound kicked his car and tore off a Swedish flag. The protests were the most disorderly in Russia since Estonian authorities took the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier from a downtown square Friday. The monument,...

Luzhkov accuses Estonian authorities of abetting fascism MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - The Estonian officials who are vandalizing the graves of anti-Nazi fighters are unconsciously abetting fascism and encouraging those who confronted the entire world, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said on Thursday. The relocation of the Soldier-Liberator Monument and military graves in Tallinn "is a profanation of the remains of soldiers who drove off the Nazi from Estonia," he told Interfax. "Estonian leaders now appear as people who justified and abetted fascism. This is very dangerous," he said. "It is dangerous to rewrite history and deny the Holocaust. This is...

Mystery Swirls in Khimki Over Whereabouts of War Remains By Natalya Krainova Staff Writer The whereabouts of the remains of six Soviet war heroes are something of a mystery. The World War II pilots' remains were dug up at a memorial in Khimki, north of Moscow, last week for reburial at a different location on Victory Day. But they seem to have disappeared. The Khimki administration, which authorized the reburial, said it did not know where the remains were, but thought they might be at the morgue in Skhodnya, a nearby town, Noviye Izvestia reported Friday. Calls to the administration...

Estonian border guards have not allowed activists of the Nashi youth movement, who left for Estonia in two different tourist groups, to enter the country. "Seven activists of the Nashi movement, including girls, who have tourist visas to Estonia, were not allowed to enter the country," press secretary of the movement Anastasiya Suslova told Interfax on Tuesday. The refusal paper handed out to young men states that "they constitute a threat to Estonian state security and that they are banned from entering the country for five years," she said. Activists wanted to make certain that the remains of Soviet...

Lithuania, Latvia react to Tallinn events Apr 29, 2007 From wire reports Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said his country supports the position of the Estonian government in its recent moves related to the controversial Bronze Soldier monument, which was removed from central Tallinn Friday morning during two nights of rioting. Speaking from the Vatican, where he was meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the president said he was observing the developments in Tallinn with great concern. The president's press service reported that Adamkus stressed that this exceptionally sensitive procedure of reburying the remains of World War II soldiers was being conducted...

Estonia denounces embassy 'siege' April 30, 2007 - 8:09PM Estonia denounced a "psycho-terror" siege at its Moscow embassy today, where it said dozens of Estonians were trapped by youths protesting over the removal of a Soviet war memorial in Tallinn. "The situation around the Estonian embassy in Moscow is psycho-terror," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told AFP. "Nearly two dozen citizens of Estonia are in the embassy building, as if taken hostage. Other citizens of Estonia are blocked from entering the embassy." Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said his country would press the European Union, of which it is a member,...

Estonia unearths Soviet war dead The Estonian authorities say they have found the coffins of 12 Soviet soldiers buried at a controversial war memorial, amid a continuing row with Russia. Estonia's decision to remove the statue of a Red Army soldier sparked riots last week. One Russian died and 153 were injured in the unrest. Protesters are now blockading Estonia's Moscow embassy, according to officials. Estonians say the soldier symbolised Soviet occupation. Russians say it is a tribute to those who fought the Nazis. It has now been relocated to a military cemetery, away from the centre of the capital...

Estonia puts Soviet memorial in new spot By JARI TANNER, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 30, 11:32 AM ET TALLINN, Estonia - A statue commemorating Soviet soldiers killed during World War II was erected at a new location Monday, three days after its removal from a downtown square in Estonia's capital provoked riots by ethnic Russians. The Bronze Soldier is now open for public viewing at the Defense Forces Cemetery, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Aet Kukk said. Police clashed over three nights with Russian-speaking Estonians angered by the decision to move the statue and a nearby war grave. One man was...

TALLINN (Reuters) - Police arrested 600 people and 96 were injured in a second night of clashes in Estonia's capital over the removal of a disputed World War Two Red Army monument, the police said on Saturday. Russia has reacted furiously to the moving of the monument. On Saturday, it said police used excessive force to crack down on protesters and demanded Estonia investigate the death of a Russian citizen in the riots. Estonia has said the statue had become a public order menace as a focus for Estonian and Russian nationalists, and protests have mainly been by young Russian-speakers....

Poland should also remove Soviet monuments - Katyn Committee 21:35 | 28/ 04/ 2007 WARSAW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - The time has come to remove Soviet-era monuments in Poland, a Polish public organization said Saturday echoing the Estonian government's decision to remove the Bronze Soldier statue in central Tallinn. The Katyn Committee which is made up of relatives of Polish officers, who were executed on the orders of the Soviet authorities in the village of Katyn near Smolensk in western Russia in 1940, said just like Estonia Poland "suffered from the Soviet occupation, while Soviet monuments have always been...

It's very difficult to explain how anyone could ever have thought that Russia would simply "give up" its hostility towards the West and its values and institutions just because it "lost" the Cold War, and could therefore "never go back" to Soviet values. Where did this insane idea come from? Is it just frenzied Western arrogance? If the West had lost the Cold War, would we have simply repudiated democracy and adopted a communist dictatorship? The latest confirmation that Russians never abandoned their hatred of the West came in Vladimir Putin's eighth (possibly last) state-of-the-nation message. In it, as Reuters...

<p>TILLINN, Estonia April 27 (UPI) -- One man died and 12 police officers and 44 protesters were injured in violence over Estonia's removal of a Soviet war memorial.</p> <p>Protests started late Thursday over the government's decision to remove the Bronze Soldier statue from the center of Tallinn and exhume the remains of Soviet soldiers buried nearby, Pravda reported. Authorities removed the memorial overnight.</p>

SARANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Sergei Ivanov walks and talks like a man who wants to be the next president of Russia, except for one thing: he has not said he is running for the job. On a trip to a central Russian province that had all the hallmarks of a campaign trip, he toured factories, chatted with townsfolk and squeezed the hand of a four-year-old girl. Then came the awkward moment. "We hope to see you as president," one resident shouted out. Ivanov, a suave former KGB spy, tensed for just a fraction of a second, blinked and then resumed...

Poland, Estonia Back Ukraine's Pro-Western Course 11:06 PM, April 3rd 2007 by News Staff The presidents of Poland and Estonia on Tuesday voiced support for pro-Western factions in the Ukraine, one day after Ukraine's president sparked a constitutional crisis by dissolving his country's pro-Russian parliament. "We want Ukraine to become part of the Western club," Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said after Tuesday evening talks with Polish President Lech Kaczynski in Warsaw. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-Europe politician who supports market reforms, dismissed parliament Monday citing alleged constitutional violations in forming the ruling coalition, and called for early elections....

TALLINN, ESTONIA — The party of Estonia's prime minister, who pledged to preserve the market-friendly policies credited with the Baltic nation's growth, narrowly won parliamentary elections Sunday, official preliminary results showed. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's center-right Reform Party had 27.8 percent of the votes, ahead of the left-leaning Center Party led by Edgar Savisaar, which had 26.1 percent, the Electoral Committee said, with nearly all districts counted. An EU and NATO member since 2004, Estonia is known for its Internet technology and is the hub of the online telephone company Skype. But the country grapples with some of the EU's...

Right-wing political parties made a strong early showing in elections in Estonia on Sunday as voters turned out in the highest numbers for ten years. With results in from 60 per cent of all polling stations, the current government leader, the right-wing Reform Party, was a surprise leader on 26.9 per cent of votes, just ahead of the expected leader, the left-wing Centre Party, on 25.0 per cent. And the right-wing Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica stood on 17.8 per cent, confounding opinion polls, which had given the party a maximum of 12 per cent. "The Union's strong...

Estonia marks Independence Day 24.02.2007, 12.39 TALLINN, February 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Celebrations marking Estonia's Independence Day began with state flag raising in a ceremony at dawn this Saturday. The tradition of flag hoisting was started on February 24, 1918. The flag was raised several hours before the German invasion. The Estonian flag was raised again over Tallinn only two years ago, in 1920, when the peace treaty with Soviet Russia was signed. It was the first act of international recognition of the sovereign state. The treaty allowed Estonia to come out of the war. The winter has impeded the traditional...