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ilvestoomas.bsky.social
Unsuccessfully retired ex-prez, ex-MEP, ex-foreign minister, ex-ambassador, ex-director of RFE-RL Estonian service, etc, ex cetera. Except for @darthputinkgb.bsky.social, I take seriously only those who post here under his or her own name.
527 posts 17,337 followers 385 following
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Posts 46 Comments 4

so then it's not a cost-cutting team, is it

submitted 5 hours ago • 30 comments

This story is probably going to lead to a lot of confusion… I’ve had to walk several very knowledgeable people through this… Let me see if I can hit the high points www.moscowtimes.ru/2025/02/21/i...

submitted 1 day ago • 16 comments

If Starlink is used as a foreign policy tool to undermine European security, it should be banned from the EU market.

submitted 11 hours ago • 27 comments

Extortion, pure and simple.

submitted 17 hours ago • 680 comments

If true then the US is now a genuine Russia-style mafia state. Russia extorts with energy-, the US with tech-dependence. I trust the conclusions we draw from this will also turn into a semblance of policy.

submitted 20 hours ago • 44 comments

In 7 days it’s become clear Europe faces its greatest security threat since 1948 when Soviet coups d’ état in CEE led UK Foreign Minister Bevan to write President Truman suggesting what became NATO. But European leaders continue to dither and Scholz around as if all this normal. 1/2

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

New: DOGE's spending has been secret. No longer. My colleagues have uncovered it. www.propublica.org/article/doge...

submitted 2 days ago • 853 comments

Really like Viktor Orbán, but on a much grander, much more problematic scale:

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

‼️ Russia: “The engineering center created for the Russian-Chinese aircraft project has filed for liquidation” lol www.interfax.ru/business/100...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Poland’s PM Tusk

submitted 2 days ago • 25 comments

having a normal one

submitted 2 days ago • 508 comments

Imagine how this administration would respond to an Article Five contingency. There is every chance it would respond in similarly predatory & exploitative fashion.

submitted 2 days ago • 31 comments

Welcome to oligarchy

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

European police and law enforcement agencies should start adjusting their cooperation with U.S. authorities in light of this incredible and dangerous decison.

submitted 2 days ago • 17 comments

Donald Trump's incredible reversal of the role of perpetrator and victim in relation to Russia's three-year-long war of aggression against Ukraine must finally shake up the European states. They need to quickly agree on a security doctrine for Europe independent from the U.S. and to act accordingly.

submitted 2 days ago • 7 comments

Extraordinary story the Wall Street Journal. X is threatening advertisers that if they don’t spend more, Elon Musk will use his influence in government to block company mergers. That’s extortion.

submitted 2 days ago • 178 comments

Obviously this is bad and very stupid, but the tenor of this kind of Trump communique is very funny to me. It's a real HOA energy, just someone being annoying and small who knows they're being that way, and who more or less sees that as both their highest personal calling and the purpose of the job.

submitted 2 days ago • 109 comments

CDC vaccine panel delayed after Robert F Kennedy assumes top US health job https://www.ft.com/content/44f65471-f01b-43d3-af22-d00a23db1fa8

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

submitted 2 days ago • 8 comments

@ilvestoomas.bsky.social Maybe of interest: undersea cables in Canada deliberately cut twice.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Surprise, shock and horror - again - at Trump doing what Trump does - again. Collective amnesia in the US and the West more broadly is Trumputin’s greatest enabler. This, below, was written roughly this time last year. Today, action would be a more useful response than pearl-clutching.

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

It's interesting just how much corruption the advertising ecosystem breeds. Ad fraud, financing of disinformation, funneling state funds to party propaganda outlets, all the privacy issues, buying (even controlling) politicians through PACs and now apparently facilitating a protection racket 🤮

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Meanwhile, the US cuts all of its democracy promotion and support for independent media

submitted 2 days ago • 39 comments

TX measles update There are now 58 confirmed measles cases in TX (Gaines, Terry, Lubbock, Lynn counties) and 8 in NM (Lea county). Nearly all in unvaccinated children. The measles vaccine (MMR) is safe and highly effective (2 doses = 97% effective). See links below for more info #vaccinessavelives

submitted 3 days ago • 9 comments

This feels like one of those articles you take note of and then quickly forget, only for it to become very salient a long time later.

submitted 3 days ago • 17 comments

This is very good from @tracinski.bsky.social . Do read open.substack.com/pub/tracinsk...

submitted 3 days ago • 4 comments

gulfof.mapquest.com?name=Mexico+...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/19/t...

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Absolutely spot on from @eliotacohen.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them In a statement, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told NBC News that officials are "working to swiftly rectify the situation." www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

submitted 4 days ago • 806 comments

JFC www.axios.com/2025/02/18/t...

submitted 4 days ago • 9 comments

"The Trump administration and Ukraine must both be struck by the parallels to a previous Trump peace agreement in which another inexperienced secretary of state made a deal with a more seasoned enemy to end a war without any American allies in the room."

submitted 4 days ago • 37 comments

Imagine Mohammed bin Salman being the good guy in the room

submitted 4 days ago • 141 comments

@ilvestoomas.bsky.social The Yarvin vision for Europe, authoritarian US. Thiel, Andreessen, Vance and EM more or less in this NatCon orbit. The Vance Munich speech merely the opening motif before the more unifying head motif. Their opportunity and predicament is the Trumpian incoherence.

submitted 4 days ago • 8 comments

Erdoğa just threw down the gauntlet—Turkey backs Ukraine’s FULL territorial integrity. Turkey ain’t just some side player in this. They control the Black Sea. They control NATO’s southern flank. And now, Erdoğan is making it clear: Russia’s land grab is not up for negotiati

submitted 4 days ago • 43 comments

While #Rubio meets the 🇷🇺 war criminal #Lavrov, I meet Ukrainian survivors, human rights activists,lawyers,journalists, soldiers &veterans in Nuremberg. Here we will discuss how to end impunity for Russia together with friends from Syria. #RussiaIsATerroristState #SlavaUkraïni

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

www.state.gov/secretary-ru...

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

In Estonia, we don't say "We told you so". We just know it, toverid.

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

Trump is turning the US military into his personal protection racket enforcers.

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

“Genius”

submitted 5 days ago • 16 comments

Many thanks Jonathan @siliconcurtain.bsky.social & General Ben Hodges @general-ben.bsky.social for this important conversation! Regards, Grace #СлаваУкраїні 🇺🇦 #ГероямСлава 🫡 #Віримо_в_ЗСУ 🫡🇺🇦🫡 youtu.be/b6ztuutAg7E?...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I know how to avoid loose nukes! Just sign a Budapest Memorandum and give them all to Russia!

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Trump administration officials scrambled through the weekend amid a flood of criticism to claw back employees they fired Thursday evening at the National Nuclear Security Administration, four people familiar with the terminations — and their fallout — told CNN. cnn.it/3QkdINV

submitted 5 days ago • 93 comments

In 2020 they used the Big Lie (100s of misleading claims) of "voter fraud" to try to overturn an election. In 2024 they're using similar tactics to create/amplify misleading claims of "government waste and fraud" to justify dismantling huge sections of the U.S. government.

submitted 5 days ago • 21 comments

A French-led effort by European leaders to present a united front on Ukraine in the face of rising fear over U.S. President Donald Trump's intentions fizzled today as they failed to agree on sending troops to police a possible peace deal.

submitted 5 days ago • 41 comments

www.ft.com/content/9fb2...

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment