Comments on: NATO Examines (Russian) Cyber Attacks on Estonia

By: I cannot state for certain that the cyber attacks were managed by the Kremlin

I cannot state for certain that the cyber attacks were managed by the Kremlin — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:47:28 +0000

[...] Connected story: NATO Examines (Russian) Cyber Attacks on Estonia [...]

By: Robin Gurney

Robin Gurney — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:51:46 +0000

Thanks Eric,
On the friendly-with-Israel note I can also confirm that when Israel’s football team recently came to Estonia and won 2-0 (yes, the referee did need glasses at least twice that day) the Israeli fans sat throughout the stadium mixed in with all the Estonians and interested foreigners like me… and there was not even a sniff of anything remotely negative.

I can’t (sadly) say the same for the recent Estonia-Russia game (which also featured a poorly sighted ref…strange coincidence) where tensions ran higher..

By: eric

eric — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:27:14 +0000

Russia is acting in a counter-productive manner. We in Europe need their fuel and other resources. They, in turn, need reliable customers. Russia appears to understand the tactics of dominance and denial, but not the strategy for peace and prosperity. Alienating your customers and making them suspicious of your every move is not clever.

We don’t actually know who is waging cyberwar, but then again we still don’t know exactly who fomented the Bronze Soldier riots, and how. We don’t know who precisely gave the order to hamper traffic across the bridge between Narva and Ivangorod, but we have our suspicions.

A military alliance such as NATO, plus a trade & politics one such as the EU, put Estonia in a better bargaining position in Samara. I hope someone talks a bit of sense at that meeting. It was handy that Condy came to lay down the law just before.

It is also, surely, a positive sign that Estonia briefly hosted Israeli Deputy Prime-Minister Shimon Peres, plus various key rabbis for the opening of the synagogue and Jewish cultural centre in Tallinn. And, of course, the fact that Ilves and Ansip were there too (wearing yarmulkas, both of them). This helps to dispel the endless rumours that all Estonians are “fascists”. In fact, Estonia has good relations with Israel, as was repeated in Ilves’ speech yesterday. There have been several official visits in both directions.