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EESTI ELU reedel, 29. jaanuaril 2021 — Friday, January 29, 2021
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Canada must work with Biden to defend our democracies against Russia ‘Canada’s own intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned that the Russian government is actively working to undermine Canadian democracy.’ Marcus Kolga, iPolitics, January 2021 Donald Trump’s U.S. presi dency is finally over, Russian President Vladimir Putin will instead be looking elsewhere for support, and a door through which he can regain legitimacy in the Western world. He may have his eye on Canada. A call for a reset of Canada’s relations with Russia was pub lished in a Kremlin-linked foreign-policy magazine in November. The piece, written by two Ottawa-area professors, suggests that Canada restore high-level relations in order to support the nearly non-existent trade between the two countries. Garry Kasparov, chairman of both the Renew Democracy Initiative and the Human Rights Foundation, warns that “Putin’s primary philosophy is confron tation, and he respects only strength. Canada should never sacrifice its values and allies for a reset that Putin would never respect.” The former world chess champion and activist says that “an unearned reset of relations with Putin – or appeasement by another name – will only help reinforce his sense of impunity, and sends a signal to other rogue leaders, which puts democracy and dissidents in greater danger everywhere.” Aside from providing des perately needed international legitimacy to the Putin regime, it’s unclear what such a reset could offer Canada, given: the ongoing information warfare Moscow is waging against Canada and its allies; the war against Ukraine; and Putin’s repression of human rights and anti-corruption activists at home. Any suggestion that Canada has severed dialogue with Russia is untrue. Canada main tains an embassy and a substan tial diplomatic presence in Russia. It also engages with the Russian government in multi lateral forums such as the Arctic Council. Trade with Russia is insigni ficant. According to the World Bank, Canada exports more goods and services to Botswana and Bangladesh than to Russia, which is our 41st-most impor tant trade partner. Meanwhile, foreign investors in Russia have been repeatedly burned by the Kremlin’s corporate raiding, theft, and corruption. Putin’s own officials avoid keeping their money in Russia, pre ferring to hide it offshore – including right here in Canada. The argument for a reset with Russia points to some European countries that are indeed more closely engaged with Russia at the moment. Germany is currently praying
that the U.S. will not sanction entities involved in the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline, which will increase Europe’s dangerous over-reliance on Russian energy. That’s unlikely, given that the U.S. Congress recently passed an expanded set of sanctions “targeting any company willing to certify the pipeline or provide facilities, equipment upgrades, insurance, or inspection of pipe-laying vessels involved – overriding a veto by President Donald Trump.” Populist EU governments like Hungary’s have cozied up to Putin’s xenophobic policies, and far-right nationalist parties in France and Italy have bene fitted from Kremlin funding and support. The senior partner in Estonia’s far-right anti-EU coa lition maintains a co-operation agreement with Putin’s United Russia party, and Austria’s farright coalition collapsed in 2019 after efforts to secure Kremlin funding were exposed. These nationalist movements help the Kremlin reach its goal of eroding the cohesion of Western alliances such as the EU and NATO. Putin knows that his government can only succeed when his enemies are fractured and destabilized. The deep polarization that has recently infected the United States and parts of Europe is one of Putin’s great achieve ments. Canada’s own intelli gence agencies, as well as the National Intelligence and Se curity Committee of Parliament, have repeatedly warned that the Russian government is actively working to undermine Canadian democracy, as well. Putin’s use of cyberattacks to destabilize Estonia in 2007, the invasion of Georgia in 2009, the illegal annexation of Crimea, and the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine all demonstrate his violent ambition to reconstitute the Soviet imperium. Those who question Putin’s repressive authoritarianism often face unspeakably grim con sequences. Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who ques tioned his war in Chechnya, was gunned down outside her apartment in 2006. Alexander Litvenenko, who exposed the FSB’s plot to blow up apart ment buildings in Ryzan to legitimize the same war, was poisoned with radioactive polo nium that same year. Popular opposition leader Boris Nemt sov was killed near the Kremlin in 2015, while Vladimir KaraMurza and Alexey Navalny have both been poisoned to within a hair of their lives. The Kremlin continues to intimidate critics abroad, including here in Canada. In Crimea, the occupying Russian authorities actively
r epress the Tatar minority. Mean w hile, hundreds of LGBTQ people have been killed, tortured, or disappeared in the Russian republic of Chechnya over the years. For the past year, the Russian government has en gaged in efforts to sow con fusion and intensify the effects of the COVID pandemic on Western societies by amplifying disinformation, conspiracies, and cyber-operations. In July, the Russian-government hacker group, APT29, hacked Cana dian medical-research facilities to collect intelligence and “hin der response efforts” against COVID-19. Instead of entertaining irresponsible proposals to ap pease the Putin regime, Canada should recommit itself to rally ing its allies to defend our democracy and engage in a dialogue with the incoming Joe Biden administration to co ordinate a multilateral approach against these hostile foreign regimes. This includes expand ing and harmonizing sanctions, monitoring and defending against information warfare, and supporting civil society groups that protect and promote democracy, human rights, and freedom. Rewarding Putin with a reset will only put Canada at odds with our true allies, and raise concerns in Washington and among Canada’s NATO and Five Eyes allies, putting our national security at risk. This is no time for a reset with Putin’s Russia.
Government of the Republic of Estonia
New government led by Kaja Kallas is sworn in STENBOCK HOUSE, 26 Janu ary 2021 – The govern ment led by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was sworn in today by taking the oath of office before the Riigikogu. At the sitting of the Riigikogu, Kallas took an oral oath of office, after which the members of the government signed the oath in writing. Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas, who is in self-isolation after having been in close contact with a person who tested posi tive for COVID-19, signed the oath digitally. In addition to the Prime Minister, the new government includes Minister of Entre pre neurship and Information Technology Andres Sutt, Minister of Education and Research Liina Kersna, Minister of Justice Maris Lauri, Minister of Defence Kalle Laanet, Minister of the Environment Tõnis Mölder, Minister of (Continued on page 12)
Using Ancestry DNA and Geni to make sense of your origins Vincent Teetsov It was an unusual process to begin with. The packaging read “Exempt Human Speci men – Category C”. Without context, you might think your genetics were being harvested for some sinister purpose, but with the reassuring instruc tional leaflet and information about Ancestry.com’s efforts, you’re made to feel part of a larger global effort to under stand our origins. By putting your saliva sample into the plastic vial, securing the top, and shaking the sample up in the mysterious blue stabi lizing solution, you may be un ravelling genetic networks that extend far beyond that piece of paper with your family tree drawn on it. You’ll learn what makes you you, and how we’re all connected. That’s one idea that links all of these genealogical companies together; the intention to bridge all of our knowledge into one common source so that we can map out where humans came from. How migrating tribes became nations. When I got my own Ancestry DNA results back, I was already expecting an assortment of different European regions to be shown. My maternal family are Brazilians who came from Austria and Portugal. My pater nal family are from Viljandimaa and Saaremaa. The other percentages of genetic material that appeared in my report helped to visualize the path of Estonian tribes to where they are now. 16% Finland. 21% Baltics. 26% Eastern Europe and Russia. That last one definitely played a part in my maternal genetics, because of how large the Aust rian empire was. Nevertheless, this percentage could have to do with how of Finno-Ugric people, the early Estonians, migrated from the Ural Mountains in present-day Russia, to the Baltic Sea. Of course, when a younger person takes one of these tests, their results can be less clear than if an older person takes
that same test. Genetic informa tion from seniors, or otherwise people whose family have lived in one place for longer, can target more specific places, with smaller regions of countries highlighted. Increased testing data has started to visualize immigrant communities abroad, too. Other consumer ancestry ser vices, such as 23andMe, even use DNA collection to tell you about your muscular composi tion, genetic likelihood of lac tose intolerance, what health challenges you are more prone to face, and more. This has given genealogy more day-to-day implications. The more people that use these kits, the more complete the world’s genetic information is. Just like any scientific re search, the larger the sample size the better. And for every person who receives “1% Irish” in their results, no matter how unexpected, it may just warrant a trip to the Emerald Isle! Still, to verify the accuracy of this kind of information, it helps to piece together what we have in writing and pictures. Sites like Geni.com have also paired with DNA testing companies (for Geni, it’s MyHeritage), but primarily fo cus on accumulating known dates, names, and data that we can glean from documents. Beyond having something to share with family down the line, inputting information like the name and date of birth of your grandparents unlocks po tential family tree matches from other users, allowing you to find long-lost relatives. Family record-keeping used to be less organized. If a family member was very keen, there might be notebooks and binders with information about people. There might be photo albums documenting special moments, like new babies and vacations. While there’s still a lot of value in tangible memories, printed photos, and the like, these kind of sites can help us uncover more about our origins than we even thought was out there.
