1. Russia cut off Latvia’s oil supply in 2003. Purely co-incidentally, this happened at the same time as a Russian takeover bid for the oil port of Ventspils.
2. Russia cut off Lithuania’s oil supply in 2006. Purely co-incidentally, this happened at the same time as the Mazeikiu oil refinery was sold to a Polish firm at the same time as a Russian one.
3. And Russia cut off Estonia’s oil supply in 2007. Purely co-incidentally, this happened at the same time as a violent dispute over the location of a Soviet war memorial.

And that’s not counting the number of times that Russia has cut off oil or gas supplies to a non-EU member state, affecting onward gas supply to EU member states.

To all those bureaucrats in Brussels who have been burying your heads in the sand, believing that Russia will never use its dominance over the EU’s energy supply as a political weapon – now’s the time to raise your head, and take a long hard look over the fence at your neigbour to the East.

Will the EU say to Russia: "Three strikes and you're out"? is a post from: Siberian Light

“We haven’t imposed any economic sanctions against Estonia and have no plans to do so. But from May 1, we plan repair works. We therefore plan to change the delivery schedule,” said a spokeswoman for Russian state railways.

The upshot of this is that Russian oil and coal exports that would ordinarily be shipped to Estonia via rail is instead sitting around in a train station somewhere in Russia.

Good for the environment, I’m sure you’ll agree but, as most of the oil was destined for re-export, rather than consumption within Estonia itself, the major outcome will be that consumers across the world will be grumpy again and Russia, as usual, will get the blame for doing something daft. And rightly so – cutting oil supplies to consumers further down the line to score petty political points achieves nothing more than paint Russia as an unreliable supplier.

Meanwhile, the Estonian ambassador to Russia was attacked by Nashi protestors:

Marina Kaljurand’s bodyguards were forced to fire tear gas to beat back the group of 30 youths, members of the Kremlin-backed Nashi (Ours) youth group, who had forced their way into the conference, shouting that Estonia was a fascist state.

Presumably the tears streaming down the faces of the Nashi faithful meant that their vision was impaired when this happened:

The protesters also blocked the arrival of a Swedish embassy vehicle, prompting Sweden to lodge a “strong verbal protest” with the Russian embassy in Stockholm and summon the Russian ambassador to account for the incident.

“The ambassador’s car was stopped and attacked by a mob as he was leaving the Estonian embassy. They kicked the car and tore off the Swedish flag. The ambassador was not injured but the atmosphere was very aggressive,” said a Swedish foreign ministry spokesman.

Oh, what a glorious day for the new, improved Russia.

Russia stops oil exports to Estonia is a post from: Siberian Light

According to the television channel, the youth intend to launch a protest on May 1 and begin a general strike the next day that will turn into a revolt on May 9.

The channel predicted that Estonian authorities could use the army to put down the revolt, which would lead to a sharp react from Russia.

May 9th is, of course, victory day in Russia, which would offer the symmetry required by television media across the world.

The report follows days of protests and riots by Russian speakers in Estonia, who are aggreived by the Estonian government’s decision to tear down a Soviet war memorial in Talinn and to exhume a number of soldiers buried beneath the monument.

I have to say, I have a great deal of sympathy for the protestors. The Estonian government’s decision comes within the context of continued discrimination against the Russian minority in Estonia – discrimination to which the rest of the European Union seems happy to turn a blind eye.

But I can’t see this getting so out of hand that it goes beyond scattered riots.

In Estonia, the revolution will be televised is a post from: Siberian Light