Skip to main content

The British Response to the Crisis in Tallinn

HMS Illustrious will come alongside at the Port of Tallinn next week.

When will a permanent NATO presence be established in Estonia?

Will the Sea Harriers pay a small visit along the NATO- Russian border?

I do hope so, after all, breaking the windows in Pskov will just match the damage that the Nashi regime did to the Estonian consulate there.

Comments

Liberal Polemic said…
Gunboat diplomacy, James?!

I think we've been lamentable in our support of Estonia, but I'm not sure that sabre rattling is (yet) required.
Anonymous said…
Russia needs to be made to understand that an attack on even a small member of the EU, however mediate or covert an attack, is an attack on the fabric of the Union. At the same time, the EU must make this position clear and act accordingly. It is only to be expected from a state like Russia that absent a resolute EU stance will try explore how far it will be allowed to go. Russia needs to be shown where to stop.
Anonymous said…
Estonia is a NATO member state, therefore there are already NATO troops in Estonia.
Cicero said…
Yes but those troops are solely Estonian, and Estonia for the moment does not have an Air Force. So My plea is for an international Nato force permanently available.
Cicero said…
Hi Tom, I overlooked you comment (oops)- No not really sabre rattling: that has been the Russians again- continually buzzing the naval manouvres in the North Sea for example.
urr said…
I've read somewhere that the visit of Illoustrious has been planned already three monthes ago. but of course we are very glad that the ship is coming.
yes, many people writing the commentaries asked when will the nato troops be in estonia permanently. the biggiest trouble is that nato airplanes are located in lithuania and it will take too long time to get here.

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo

One Year On

  Head vabariigi iseseisvuspäeva! Happy Estonian Independence Day! It is one year since I stood outside the Estonian Parliament for the traditional raising of the national flag from Tall Hermann tower. Looking at the young fraternities gathered with their flags, I was very sure that Estonia too would soon be facing the aggression of the criminal Russian regime. A tragic and dark day. 5 eyes intelligence had been clear: an all out invasion was going to happen, and Putin´s goals included- and still include- "restoration" of Russian imperial power across Europe, even to the Atlantic. Yet there was one Western intelligence failure: we all underestimated the guts of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ZSU, and its President and people. One year on, Estonia, and indeed all the front line states against Russia, knows that Ukraine saved us. Estonia used that time to prepare itself, should that "delayed" onslaught ever be unleashed, but equally the determination of Kaja Kallas,