Estonia Rips Europe For 'Cyber Attack' Advice
Estonia today slammed the European Union for condescending advice, such as "TRY USING A FIREWALL," in the EU's comments about Estonia's sustained hacker attack from Russia. Estonia officials say the advice is completely out of touch with the sustained, sophisticated and incredibly huge attack (more than a million times the normal traffic, according to one official). In the EU's defense, they also HONKED OFF RUSSIA, scolding the Kremlin for meddling.
3:16 PM * PERMALINK * 7 comments
Comments:
What the Russians did to Estonia by trying to bring down Estonia's entire government's network is what the Chinese tried to do to the U.S. Government when our military accidentally bombed thier embassy in Belgrade. The Russians are insanely jealous of the success of Estonia and have been doing everything they can short of another invasion by interfering in their internal affairs. The Estonians have shown great restraint that they have not packed up all the Russians in cattle cars (the way Russians did to thousands of Estonians in the 40s) and ship them to Siberia to die in the cold.
Now, now, now! What do you know about Estonia in the first place to make gross and ignorant generalizations like that? Shipping Russians out in cattle cars? There are 350-400,000 ethnic Russians living in Estonia, some of whom have lived there for centuries... That's a very healthy minority in a country of 1.3 M people! The Russians I've met are all fine people and just want to live their lives in peace. Obviously Russia is meddling in Estonia's affairs and trying to stir trouble there among the local Russians but I hardly believe that Russia is "insanely jealous", they are just too big to care, besides, they are doing quite well these days. Yes, they are pissed that Estonia is part of NATO and EU now (as opposed to being called a Soviet Republic) but you have to admit that Estonia dealt with relocating the Bronze Soldier in a rather heavy-handed way, without any time allowed for the idea to sink in... They just did it. They dealt the first blow and if you kick an elephant in the ass, you my get stepped on...also, Estonia is rightfully angry at the toothless EU government who is tip-toeing around the issue (EU gets 1/3 of their gas and oil from Russia).
Oh, and BTW, I am an Estonian, my grandfather died in a kulag and I am married to an ethenic Russian (from Estonia).
The Economist has a nice piece on the whole U.S. - Russia "chill," which I think shed's some light on Russia's behavior.
Russia feels 1) "encircled" by the U.S.; 2) betrayed by former "Soviet Bloc" countries and former members of the USSR proper; 3) and -- worst of all -- powerful because high oil prices are doing the same thing to Russia that they have done to Iran and Venezuela -- emboldened domestic anti-American types.
What has all this to do with Estonia? Well, they're in no mood to be "taken advantage of" or slighted by abuse of Russian minorities.
Plus, as Christopher Hitches so concisely puts it, Vladimir Putin is a "KGB thug."
-Mike
What do I know about Estonia? A helluva lot more than you do. All Russians who can trace their ancestry to pre-WWII independence in Estonia were granted by the Estonian government automatic citizenship in 1991. The Russians who came into Estonia after Estonia had been forced into the USSR, are not. They have a choice by current Russian law: They can apply for and get automatic Russian citizenship. Then, if they wish to stay in Estonia, the Estonian government will give them a residency permit. Many have done that. By current Estonian law - for the Russians who don't want a Russian passport, they too have a choice: learn 800 words of Estonian, swear allegiance to Estonia, and pass a test to get an Estonian passport. For those who wish to remain with a "grey" non-passport, the EU is allowing them to travel around Europe with a grey passport. Those are plain facts. Now, I am sure the thousands of Estonians who were ripped from their homes in the 1940s and sent to Siberia were fine people too, and they wanted to live in Estonia with their families in peace. But you missed the point. The Estonians are being extremely accomodating to the Russians, who by law are breaking the Geneva Convention in regard to "occupational forces made up of civilians" by not kicking them out of the country. They have been allowed to stay. And furthermore, because you seem to be a real blockhead....the Estonians can run their country the way they see fit...which means removing something they see as offensive. And by the way...they should have melted down that statue, but to prove their sensitivity, they moved to an actually better location at a military cemetary. And, in case you don't know, in the past two years several important monuments honoring the Russian military from WWII were recently moved in St. Petersburg and Moscow because some wealthy families wanted to build some new dachas. Estonia is a soverign nation and should not have to submit to the Russian government. And gulag is spelt in English with a G, not a K.
The sovereignty of a country is not absolute, roughly speaking it's proportional to its power (in this case infinitely small seen
the contender). BTW it has to submit to some
government whether USA or Russia. IMHO it's
extremely stupid to submit to somebody that's
oceans away.
Marjan, you sound like a stupid person. Estonia does not have to submit to any government, Russia, or the USA.
.... anymore...
Mike
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