"The European Union is 15 times richer than Russia, its population is three times larger, and it spends seven times as much on the national defence. Strong Europe is in the interests of both Estonia and Finland.''-- Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in Tallinn today.
(Estonia seriously needs to hire this guy)
10 kommentaari:
yeah but lets face it, Europe is Fat and Lazy. If Russia decided to grab more of Estonia or Finland, do you see French or spanish doing anything about it?
How eminently sensible words. I have to confess that I just can't get very excercized about Russia. At the moment it's just Saudi-Arabia on the taiga with lots of useless, non-productive weaponry - it has a chance to develope a strong middle class, a functioning civil society and infrastructure, but actually the danger for Latin Americanization seems quite real. A super rich elite, a huge amount of badly educated poor, bad demographics in general and a corrupt political system depending on oil sales (which, btw, will fairly soon run out). I can't see them threatening the West directly at all - they have more real worries about their Southern and South-Eastern borders. If anything the EU is a natural strategic partner for Russia.
He wouldn't be smiling if things were that grim, Anon.
yeah but lets face it, Europe is Fat and Lazy. If Russia decided to grab more of Estonia or Finland, do you see French or spanish doing anything about it?
Yes.
German industry is Europe's golden goose, but even their guilt has its limits, if not an expiration date.
yeah but lets face it, Europe is Fat and Lazy. If Russia decided to grab more of Estonia or Finland, do you see French or spanish doing anything about it?
What if the French and Scots collaborate to put a Catholic on the throne of England. How should Estland and Finland react?
I really like Stubb. He was writing a good column for a European newspaper for quite some time so I feel like I "know" him in some way.
Paet seems decent, smart, young, and I haven't heard him get anything wrong (unlike Ojuland, who doesn't seem too competent), but he is not really radiant or "impressive".
Below his impressions on the Tallinn visit though only in Finnish (he actually does keep the blog himself, strangely enough). He is surely very competent (has a PhD from the London School of Economics about European integration) but does not have much political experience which might cause him quite a bit of trouble.
Tallinna
Alex Stubb is hot.
The last thing Eestimaa needs is more Finns; I don't care if they are unemployed police recruits or eurohorny political stubs; let them stay in fucking Soome, palun!
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