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Kazakhstan and Belarus topped the list of the countries perceived to be the friendliest to Russia while Estonia was named the iciest country by an overwhelming number of Russian respondents, a recent poll held by the Levada agency in mid May revealed. The poll, which sampled 1,600 Russian citizens in 128 towns in 48 regions of Russia, showed that 39 percent of the respondents consider Kazakhstan to be the country friendliest to Russia. The number of positive answers slightly increased compared to 33 percent last year. Belarus took second place with 38 percent of those interviewed naming it an amicable...

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 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...

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...

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin of Russia obliquely compared the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, in an apparent escalation of anti-American rhetoric within the Russian government. Putin did not specifically name the United States or NATO but used phrasing similar to that which he has used previously to criticize American foreign policy while making an analogy to Nazi Germany. The comments marked the latest in a series of sharply worded Russian criticisms of the foreign policy of the Untied States - on...

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...

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...