Always opportunistic swines like that.
During the March 1949 Soviet mass deportations, Kallas’ mother, Kristi, six months old at the time, grandmother and great-grandmother, all labeled as “enemies of the state”, were deported to Siberia. Her mother was allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.
I think she was talking about her mother as victim of USSR, not about his father.
Many Estonians were sent to Siberia… but we have to set the premise in the right here. Till 1950, for 1000 years, Estonia has been independent 22 years (after WWI and the Soviet revolution). Before Russia, for 1000 years, Germany, Sweden or Denmark owned Estonia.
After WWII, true the Soviets send many people to Siberia, a horrendous amount of people… but it comes with the caveat that Nazi Germany occupied for 4 years before so probably, the intent was to deport “collaborators”, although we know how these things are operated and probably many were completely innocent (in war we know how repugnant neighbors are to each other on reporting innocents.)
Now her mom did come back a decade later and apparently they made a very good life ever since. That is like if in the 1950s I was imprisoned for a decade (rightly or not) and for the next 3 decades I succeeded in the system and lived far better than my peers (and better than the overwhelming majority of Russians!) but I just self the story of 1950s… it is just disingenuous.
Don’t take me wrong, I believe in the preservation and even right of self-determination of people, myself come from one without it, but stop portraying like Estonians or Ukrainians were heavily discriminated by Moscow… they were not. Estonians were not the blacks in the US of 1800s, not even in the 1950s, nor were the Jews in Germany of 1930s but more like the Scots in UK or Basques in Spain. Many people were sent inhumanely and even criminally to Siberia but was proportional to either being suspected of being a collaborator, not for being Estonian or Ukrainian.
I celebrate that Estonia is an independent country and remains to be so for many decades to come, but play your cards right, be vary of Russian’s intentions as of the US’ or Germany; all three would not think it twice before throwing you under the bus the very moment they calculate to use you as a tool for their own gain. Finland in 1950-2010 knew how to operate in that environment; strength your defenses, but reassure you won’t be used by one or the other side; Finland thrived then.
Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.
I would discard entire source for such remarks.
Kaja is a fucking clown. Them moment I saw that she said Ireland doesn’t know what its like to be oppressed (the fuck?), I automatically discredited everything she says.
She and Ursula should throw themselves in ditches and rot.
It is perplexing to me how she has been able to get where she is with that story and how the media complicit with it!
Hating Russia is basically the sole requirement for advancing in EU politics.
So true… but unlike the US, where it is well known there are sectors that earn lots of money and power, I don’t know exactly how it works in Europe since everyone losses with these choices. I am positive, the US choose Ursula for the post (I bet they do like when selecting the General to rule Pakistan where he is vetted for a couple of weeks in private) and forced into the EU with bypassing the Spitzenkandidat process. But why so many powers in Europe let that fly?!
The US worked hard since WW2 to ensure that Europe would be politically subservient to the US. The Marshall Plan indebted Europe to the US, and NATO made Europe militarily dependent. Such economic and military dependence necessarily led to Atlanticist politicians rising to the top. Incidentally, the EU makes the whole problem worse because the bureaucracy there is not accountable to the people living in individual European countries.
In addition to this, the US does all of Europe’s dirt elsewhere in the world. For example, oil gets stolen from Syria and sent to Europe. This means European capitalists don’t have to compete with American capitalists, who source their oil from Canada and Latin America. They agree to divvy up resources so Europe and the US don’t come into conflict later.
The war in Ukraine is an example of the opposite happening. NATO capitalists are in conflict with capitalists in former Soviet nations. They both want to extract resources from Ukraine, but NATO capitalists want Russian capitalists to be subservient.
As said above, the Marshall Plan made Europe militarily dependent on the US. In exchange, the US does the actual armed conflict. Europe gets to benefit from imperialism, yet sits below American capital.
very much agree with all taht
The theory is that. What is perplexing is how with so many countries, with so many stakeholders (voters, industries,…), the discipline is incredible. The Ursula case is interesting, the US did not like the candidates that was posed to win (Manfred Weber as probably saw on him as too patriotic German and Margrethe Vestager as too popular with Europeans with her antitrust cases on American companies)… so imposing ignoring the Spitzenkandidat system and resorting only to secretive backroom deals… it is amazing this is what the EU has become!!! It is no surprise most EU representatives in the parliament know no clue about the candidates and just follow party lines, but still… I would expect some more dissidents. Meloni in Italy is interesting too… her speeches were vociferously anti-establishment but the media was kind of passive with her… and no surprise, she is indeed perfectly inline with the establishment… but, the media were told to be nice with her before elections so the apparatus knew beforehand her real self! There is a vetting process before hand!
EU is a giant mess at this point, and it’s really not clear to me how it’s going to move forward. The EU doesn’t appear to have a coherent strategy on how to deal with the US, Russia, or China. It’s becoming geopolitically irrelevant, and the economy is going into a recession. The apparatchiks running the project don’t seem to have any bright ideas or even basic awareness of the problems EU is facing.
Could not agree more here! Any group you follow there you see with a minimal grasp of reality?
Not really, because the main alternative to the neoliberal centre seems to be on the right. I’m really not sure what to expect in Europe in the coming years.
Imo this comes at least partially down to the generic pattern of representatives becoming more conformist when they get into power. In my country for example we have a Pirate party, and they were quite radically progressive when they were founded but as they got into parliament+govt they became more centrist. You see this happen in many countries. I wouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that they are being ‘vetted’ by hidden elites, I think it’s very possible that its just an effect of the incentives you face in the process of competing in elections, facing the media, the environment in a parliament, etc. etc. But even if the latter is the case, it wouldn’t be a good thing since you have a diverse set of representatives representing a diverse society, and if the democratic system molds them to have a uniform set of traits then you are losing accuracy of that representation.
No doubt, with more responsibilities there is always a tendency to conform more, but from there to vote blindly there is a stretch. I wonder what happened to the Pirate parties in Europe!! I am looking for a pan-European, not necessarily federalist party in Europe but the few available do not convince me… I am tempting to create one (partially joking)… or just give up and find a peaceful live in some coast.
Hmm… Volt?
Ok whatever but where’s the meme template from?
Thank you!!
It’s from a Victoria Beckham interview where she was claiming to be raised with significantly less wealth.
Thank you. I just looked it up and it’s gold.
