Opinion Archives - Page 94 of 96 - the Lithuania Tribune

Opinion: Breaking free from Gazprom is of political and economic benefit

August 29, 2014 Dr. Laurynas Kasciunas 0

Russian intervention in Ukraine has refocused the attention on the traditional military and security challenges, but the factors that made it possible for today’s Russian attempts to revise the European security architecture should not be forgotten. Primarily, this was the result of the processes in the energy sector that go forward only because of reasoned calls of a part of intellectuals for Europe to stop funding of Vladimir Putin’s regime. […]

Opinion: Molotov-Ribbentrop and the birth of the Lithuanian-American alliance

August 28, 2014 Paul Goble 0

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed 75 years ago is remembered as the beginning of an alliance between Hitler and Stalin that divided Eastern Europe between the two totalitarian dictators and opened the way to World War II. That it certainly was, but the accord had another impact as well: reaction to it marked the beginning of an alliance between Lithuania and her Baltic neighbours with the United States. […]

Opinion: Russia’s psychological warfare – battles without armed confrontation

August 27, 2014 Stan Backaitis 0

This year, during the month of July, the Central and Eastern European Coalition (CEEC), met with California U.S. congressman Adam Schiff and the U.S. Governor of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Matthew Armstrong, to exchange thoughts on Russian inspired and supported armed conflicts and threats in the CEE region. […]

Opinion: To give in without a struggle?

August 24, 2014 DELFI EN 0

Political scientist Kęstutis Girnius waves away the phantom of the information war and tries to convince us that “Russian misinformation does not have a major impact”. He argues that Lithuanian participation in an information war would be futile, calling instead for cleaner objectivity in Lithuanian media coverage of Russia’s aggressions against Georgia and Ukraine. […]

Edward Lucas: The West skipped summer semester on geopolitics

August 24, 2014 Edward Lucas 0

The downing of the Malaysian airline MH17 finally turned the world’s eyes to the conflict in Ukraine. The criminal irresponsibility of putting advanced weapons in the hands of ill-trained, trigger-happy insurgents was obvious even to professional foreign-policy analysts. […]

Opinion: How lucky I was to squeeze into the Baltic Way chain

August 23, 2014 Linas Jegelevicius 0

Perhaps few events in my 43-year-old’s life have been so vivid and, without exaggeration, future-defining as the Baltic Way. […]

Opinion: The Baltic Way, a policy of memory and cooperation

August 22, 2014 Egidijus Vareikis 0

I have to confess, that generally, I don’t like the term “Baltic States.” This term references a legacy I hate — the Soviet legacy. […]

Opinion: Information war – no need for mobilization yet

August 22, 2014 DELFI EN 0

The heralds of information wars are disconcerted, identify ever more battlefields, call on proper mobilisation. The latest example is the response of Aleksandras Matonis to a report aired on the Russian TV, in which members of the expedition Mission Russia have been referred to as tourists following the traces of the WW II victims and reportedly hoping that in the future joint Russian-Lithuanian groups would be travelling Europe to pay homage to the fallen Soviet soldiers. The leader of the expedition said such hope was actually expressed by the Russian journalist. […]

Jaroslav Neverovič and Dalia Grybauskaitė

Opinion: Will Cytacka save Lithuania?

August 21, 2014 DELFI EN 0

In the context of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, it is very important for Lithuania and other countries in the region to maintain domestic political stability. Otherwise it would be relatively easy to induce regional unrest by artificially stirring up dissatisfied factions of their societies. […]

Opinion: Putin’s white shield for terrorists in East Ukraine

August 19, 2014 DELFI EN 0

On the night between 11 and 12 August, a convoy of 280 Kamaz trucks set out from Moscow to East Ukraine, loaded, according to the Moscow Oblast authorities, with humanitarian aid for civilian residents in the war zone. Even though the Russians immediately marked the convoy with the International Red Cross flags, the organization itself had no knowledge of it. It was not until 16 August that the Red Cross received the manifest of the shipment. […]

Opinion: Putin grasped the political soul of the West

August 17, 2014 Vladimiras Laucius 0

Only now, after Russian missiles shot down the MH17 flight, does the West seem to experience something like a (small) shock. After all, until recently it urged Ukrainian President Poroshenko to sit down at the negotiating table with the terrorist ringleaders. […]

Opinion: Lies, damned lies and Russian disinformation

August 17, 2014 Paul Goble 0

The Russian Federation uses extensive propaganda, outright lies, and — most importantly — disinformation as part of the hybrid warfare it is waging against Ukraine and the West. Disinformation combines truth, what people want to be true, and cleverly disguised outright falsehoods. […]

Opinion: How to restrain the Russian Czar?

August 13, 2014 Vytautas Kersanskas 0

While the war in Eastern Ukraine continues, no one can come up with an idea of how to restrain Russia, which responds to international norms cynically and does not want to hear the warnings of the global community. The current sanctions that Russia is subjected to have one main goal, which is to stop the conflict in Eastern Ukraine and force Moscow to stop supporting terrorists in that area. […]

Opinion: Lithuania needs a new goal

August 12, 2014 Romas Sadauskas-Kvietkevicius 0

Now, when all political decisions concerning Lithuania’s accession to the euro zone are already made and only technical currency changeover details are left to complete, it is time to ask what will be the new ambitious goal for Lithuania. […]

Opinion: Waiting for the barbarians, or why fairytales get censored in Lithuania (II)

August 9, 2014 Rima Bertasaviciute 0

In the fairy tale book Amber Heart by Neringa Dangvydė addresses “the twilight zone”:same-sex marriage, shifting identities, social exclusion taking place in front of our eyes (or carried out by us ourselves). Those things are still awkward to speak of; they are difficult to find the right words for, as well as a fitting place in the discourse. […]

Opinion: Waiting for the barbarians, or why fairytales get censored in Lithuania (I)

August 7, 2014 Rima Bertasaviciute 0

In her fairy tale book Amber Heart, Neringa Dangvydė addresses “the twilight zone”: same-sex marriage, shifting identities, social exclusion taking place in front of our eyes (or carried out by us ourselves). Those things are still awkward to speak of; they are difficult to find the right words for, as well as a fitting place in the discourse. […]

Opinion: Hope for the best and fear of the worst in new business season

August 7, 2014 Meelis Mandel 0

Meelis Mandel, editor in chief of Estonia‘s leading business newspaper Äripäev, writes that these are both exciting and terrible times because no-one knows what is going to happen. […]

Opinion: What can stop Russia?

August 7, 2014 Laurynas Kasciunas 0

The sanctions of the West against Russia are followed by discussions about what effect they could have on further actions of Russia towards Ukraine. One side stresses that Putin and his closest environment understand only force, therefore the increasing sanctions are the best measure of scaring Russia from further aggression in Ukraine. […]

Opinion: Social Media – the other kind of threat

August 6, 2014 Jurgis Vedrickas 0

Social media is an important aspect in the lives of millions of people, daily. It may really have an unprecedented degree of impact on life as we know it, for better or worse. The opportunities social media brings are great and numerous, but beyond grumbling about communication skills deficiencies we rarely consider another, more direct way that social media could prove to be a problem. […]

Opinion: Irresistible machine of Russia‘s propaganda

August 5, 2014 Viktor Denisenko 0

Russia‘s propaganda machine in the war against Ukraine is gaining momentum. It uses diverse tools: from repetitive stereotypical concepts through Moscow-backed information channels to fact and data falsification. […]