Europe.view Border controls Jan 14th 2010From Economist.com Thanks to Poland, the alliance will defend the Baltics IN A crunch, would NATO stand by its weakest members—the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? After five years of dithering , the answer now seems to be yes, with a decision in principle by the alliance …
Tag Archive: Baltics
Dec 10
europe view: three cheers for Primakov
Europe.view The neighbour from hell Dec 10th 2009 From Economist.com Cack-handed Russian tactics are boosting NATO in eastern Europe IN THE 1990s, when enlarging NATO to take in the ex-communist countries still seemed perilous and impractical, help came from an unexpected source. Yevgeny Primakov (pictured), a steely old Soviet spook who became first head of …
Oct 29
NATO and Russia
War gamesOct 29th 2009 | RIGA AND TALLINN From The Economist print edition Jitters in eastern Europe over Russia’s military manoeuvres SCAREMONGERING is where defence-planning and politics overlap. Big military exercises in western Russia and Belarus, which finished earlier this month, were based on the following improbable scenario: ethnic Poles in western Belarus rise up …
Oct 15
British Waffen-SS Legion? Not likely…
Europe.view Unoccupied Britain Oct 15th 2009From Economist.com It looks simpler from across the Channel TWEAK history a bit. Imagine that in 1940 Hitler and Stalin divide Britain between them. Both occupying powers behave abominably but in different ways. After a rigged election, Scotland is declared part of the Soviet Union. Stalin imposes a one-party state …
Oct 08
Latvia (from Economist website
Ailing fast Oct 7th 2009 From Economist.com Bad news from Latvia raises fears of contagion across eastern Europe THE patient emerges from intensive care, hurls the medicine at the doctors and bites his blood donor. That may be an unfair characterisation of the recent news from crisis-stricken Latvia, but it is pretty much how outsiders …
Sep 24
Baltic turnaround?
Baltic economies Feeling a bit fragile Sep 24th 2009From The Economist print edition A Baltic meltdown has been averted, but the gloom may yet last a bit longer WORRIES about a financial meltdown across eastern Europe have receded, thanks to generous outside support, some canny policies and the start of a recovery in western Europe. …
Sep 04
europe view 148 what putin should have said
Europe.view Mentioning the warSep 3rd 2009 From Economist.com What Vladimir Putin should have said in GdanskHonoured Guests, Dear Excellencies: My German counterpart Willy Brandt launched his country’s reconciliation with Poland by bending his knee at the Warsaw ghetto memorial in 1970. My aim today is less ambitious, but I would like to begin by stating …
Jun 24
Foreign Policy magazine (1)
The Fall and Rise and Fall Again of the Baltic StatesA recessionary tale from Europe’s new basket cases.BY EDWARD LUCAS | JUNE 22, 2009 Portraying the Baltic states in their current mess requires more than words and numbers. Only an old-fashioned chart, with a sea monster, a whirlpool, or perhaps a skull and crossbones, would …
Jun 24
Foreign Policy magazine (2)
Welcome to BaltlandIn Russian, the Baltic states are called pribaltika—literally, the “Baltic shore.” That infuriates Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, as do most other attempts to lump them together. Estonians are the prickliest: Toomas Hendrik Ilves, now president, angered his southern neighbors by saying that Estonia should be more fairly counted as a Nordic country, not …
Apr 09
Baltic economics
[sorry for lack of activity. I am taking longer than expected to get over my hospital excursion]The troubled Baltics Still afloat in the Baltic, just Apr 8th 2009 | TALLINN From The Economist print edition The three Baltic economies face a spiralling economic downturn ONCE the fastest-growing economies in Europe, the three Baltic countries are …
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