Contents tagged with Estonia

  • Estonian government to liberalize air travel with Ukraine

    The Estonian government will lift the air travel restrictions that it had with Ukraine.

    According to the Estonian daily, Postimees, and with reference to the website of the Estonian government, this issue was discussed at a meeting on Thursday.

    An agreement on the organization of air transportation between the two countries was signed in 1993.

    Estonian airline Nordica, in cooperation with Adria Airways, will operate direct return flights from Tallinn to Odessa starting from the 27th of May 20 …

  • Media: British fighters escorted five Russian aircraft near Estonia

    On Wednesday, Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to escort Russian military aircraft that approached Estonia, reports the Daily Telegraph’s website. British fighter jets left their base in Estonia and intercepted two Su-27 fighter jets flying with IL-20 electronic reconnaissance aircraft. Two more Su-27 fighters were detected and also intercepted.

    The newspaper notes that Russian aircraft were flying in the international airspace along the northern and western borders of …

  • Estonian Defense Minister favors the deployment of NATO equipment near the borders of the country

    The Estonian daily newspaper Postimees reported that the Estonian Minister of Defense, Hannes Hanso, favored the deployment of NATO heavy military equipment near the country’s borders.

    “We want NATO heavy military equipment to be deployed closer to Estonia rather than a thousand miles away from it. For our part, in alliance with Latvia and Lithuania, we will do our best to ensure simplified transportation of the units across the state border and provision of weapons to our allies,” Hanso noted. …

  • NATO warships will arrive in Tallinn

    The Ministry of Defense of Estonia reported that two NATO warships, one Spanish frigate and one British, will arrive in Tallinn next week, BNS reported. The warships are part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG1).

    The group consists of two warships, the Spanish Alvaro De Bazan frigate and the British Iron Duke frigate. The ships will stay in the capital of Estonia until the 15th of May.

    The NATO warships will attend the Estonian Navy’s anti-mine exercises before entering the port of …

  • Gazprom may completely abandon the Baltic market

    As reported by Rzeczpospolita, after leaving Latvia and Lithuania, the Russian Gas monopoly, Gazprom, may abandon its work in Estonia as well. According to the daily, the Board of Directors of Gazprom has to make a decision on the termination of its participation in Eesti Gaas on May 11th.

    As of today, 51.38% of the shares of the Estonian company belong to Finnish Fortum, 37.03% of the shares are owned by Gazprom, and 10.02% belong to the Latvian company, Itera Latvija, which is part of the …

  • Estonian Defense Minister: Russia regularly violates our airspace

    Russian warplanes regularly violate Estonian airspace. This was reported by the Minister of Defense of Estonia, Hannes Hanso, during a visit to Paris on the 3rd of May. He added that this is “extremely reckless behavior” by Moscow.

    “They are violating our airspace fairly regularly. They fly over the Baltic Sea with their transponders switched off,” Hanso reported.

    He added that even though military radar can detect a plane which has its transponders turned off, civilian aircraft are unable to …

  • Estonian PM proposes extending sanctions against Russia

    The Prime Minister of Estonia, Taavi Roivas, expressed his support for extending the anti-Russian sanctions policy at the meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, that took place on Tuesday in New York, Interfax reported.

    ”It is extremely important that the international community remembers Russia’s attempts to publicly participate in resolving the conflict in Syria while it didn’t make a single step to withdraw from Ukraine,” Roivas said.

    “We can’t talk about …

  • Large-scale NATO exercises begin in Estonia

    The largest of NATO’s military exercises this year began on May 2nd in Estonia. According to the press service of the Estonian Defense Force Headquarters, 6,000 servicemen, including 1,500 from 10 countries that are strong allies and NATO partners, took part in a series of maneuvers code-named Kevadtorm 2016.

    Soldiers from Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the USA, Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania are participating. Military exercises scheduled to last three weeks …

  • Estonia to spend 70 million euros on construction of wall along border with Russia

    The Estonian Minister of Internal Affairs, Hanno Pevkur, stated that Estonia will spend over 70 million euro on the construction of a high-tech wall on the border with Russia, Postimees reports.

    "The total cost of the construction of the technological border will tentatively exceed 70 million euro. Our goal is to complete the construction of the border infrastructure by the centennial of the Estonian Republic which will be celebrated in 2018," Pevkur said during a speech on Friday at the …

  • Estonia warns NATO of possible surveillance by Russian drones

    The Estonian Security Police are concerned about the possible operations of the Russian Special Forces. The agency has already informed NATO that their neighbor is watching the country using unmanned aircraft.

    The Security Police sent the Alliance a report on the week-long command-staff exercise, Trident Jaguar, completed on April 27th. “Over the past two days, starting April 22nd, drones were seen near the Ämari Air Base and at a military base in the south east of the country,” the report …