Vlad and Valentina. Pillow-talk tactics

Copydude’s Moscow correspondent, nfb, has revealed that plans to defuse the Russia-Estonia crisis were underway a whole year before it even started.
Well, isn’t that just typical of chess-playing Russians! Always so many moves ahead.
As long ago as June, 2006, Kremlin associates were negotiating to buy Estonia, starting with the Tallinn [...]

. Now Playing. Rosie Gaines.

It’s been 7 hours and 13 days since Boris took his love away - plus the time it’s taken me to finish reading all the obituaries.
It isn’t done to speak ill of the dead, though very many have made an exception in Boris’ case. What’s missing amongst the list of [...]

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Here’s something typical from Russian language blogs back in April.
It rather gives the lie to the claim that Estonia was surprised by Russian reaction. Or that the plan to dig up the grave was not a deliberately provocative act. Or that protest was confined to drunks or criminals.
Feelings were already running very high [...]

Estonians are still firmly maintaining that the centre of Tallinn is no place for war graves.
‘But here in Iraq, well, there’s plenty of space for graves’, said an Estonian military spokesman. ‘With our help, since the occupation of Iraq, over 650,000 new graves have been created’.
‘The Soviet occupation was a terrible thing to happen to [...]

Lovely, off-the-shoulder Estonian, Svetlana, a wallpaper consultant, would like to meet any man from absolutely anywhere else. Foto from Estonian Personals.

So. what’s the real deal in Estonia? Honestly. Anyone ever been there?
First of all, it’s always good to do desk research. And here you’ll discover that Estonia is one of the world’s most unhappy countries.
Currently [...]

The following is the only comment received from a Russian speaker in Estonia. It is highlighted here to provide balance.
You know, I am Russian, who lives in Estonia, I was born here and so was my mother. I am a teacher of Estonian language in Russian Schools, I am a citizen of Estonia and I [...]

Almost before you can say ‘fascist’, the Estonians have hurriedly re-assembled the Bronze Soldier and put him back up, albeit in a different location. They even put out a live TV broadcast to tell the world.
That’s a very different story to Friday, when Government spokesman Martin Jasko said the ‘unnecessarily divisive’ statue had ‘no place [...]

One of the EU’s many accomplishments in facilitating NATO expansion has been to ignore its own laws. Currently it is condoning a form of ethnic cleansing against Russian speakers in Estonia. Just as it turned a blind eye to punitive language laws in Latvia.
As Amnesty International explains, in EU Estonia today, every third person is [...]

The Nashi kids hit Kaliningrad at the weekend with their ‘Hunt The Dollar’ spectacle.

The Nashi sweep into town dressed in 500 rouble notes. They spread good news about a strong rouble. Then they set off on a hunt to flush out any dollars left in Kaliningrad. The dollar is going down the toilet, they explain [...]

Kaliningrad Oblast - formerly North East Prussia - has many tranquil villages which appear little changed for centuries.
This is picturesque Gvardeysk. But the picture changes somewhat on closer inspection. Gvardeysk has a strong Russian military presence. And once Poland acquires its new missile batteries pointing at Russia, Gvardeysk is a strong candidate for a battery [...]