Toomas Hendrik Ilves From Estonia. Where Digital is Native. And come in at #2 in the world in internet freedom. @toomas_ilves@mastodon.social

Joined May 2012
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Oh hell, I guess there's nothing left to do but to move over to @ilvestoomas.bsky.social. It seems civilised there. Hope it lasts. Will be double posting for awhile weaning myself off this hellsite.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
As everything goes wrong for Russia due to Putin's war, the swans are warming up. 🎶🦢🦢🦢🦢 Russian MPs are openly and publicly warning of social collapse, saying the economy cannot withstand the war, and blaming the Kremlin for the current problems. Dance little swans, dance.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Today, 85 years ago, Soviet authorities under Stalin violently deported more than 10,000 people from Estonia to Siberia in soiled cattle wagons. It was part of a wider campaign of terror ordered from Moscow. In the Baltics, Moldova and western Belarus, around 106,000 people were deported in May–June 1941 alone. Most of those taken from Estonia were women, children and the elderly.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
EU (and NATO) enlargement has been the West’s most successful strategic tool of the past three decades. It transformed history and made Europe safer. Without the enlargement that began in the 1990s, Central and Eastern Europe would likely have been consumed by instability and conflict. Grey zones do not remain grey for long. The prospect of membership helped fill them with democracy, prosperity, and the rule of law instead. In doing so, enlargement strengthened not only those who joined, but Europe as a whole. The success of the “new” members became the success of the “old” ones too. That is why Ukraine, Moldova, and the Western Balkans matter. They offer a chance to continue one of Europe’s greatest success stories. Enlargement must remain merit-based—but it must also move fast enough to sustain hope and momentum. Leave countries in the waiting room for too long, and you risk creating the very grey zones enlargement was meant to eliminate.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
The "map of Ukrainian biolabs" released by the departing @DNIGabbard today is a wonder in its own right. On the map, "Kyiv" is located hundreds of miles from the actual city of Kyiv. There is no city called "Cherniv" in Ukraine. (There are Chernihiv and Chernivtsi, but both are hundreds of miles away.) And this is only a small part of what is wrong with this map...
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
JUST IN: Andrej Karpathy, a top AI scientist at Anthropic, is reportedly barred from accessing the company’s most advanced AI model because he is not a U.S. citizen.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
So Zelensky desecrated the White House by not wearing a suit but this is ok?????

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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
“Tulsi Gabbard and her staff promulgated Russian intelligence products as American work.” Yes, and she did this before joining ODNI and again on her way out the door, which should probably tell you where she’ll wind up next. Senators who voted to confirm her should think on their sins.
EXCLUSIVE: 🚨 @TulsiGabbard Recycled Published Russian Intelligence And Claimed It Was An Official American Intelligence Document In Her Latest Act Of Deception Days Before She Is Set To “Resign” As DNI 🚨 In her “Ukrainian Bio lab” document “declassification” release this week, I’ve discovered that DNI Tulsi Gabbard used graphics from official Russian intelligence documents and slapped an ODNI @ODNIgov logo on top of these same documents to present them as an official intel report created by the US government. Upon further analysis of Tulsi Gabbard’s most recent declassification related to Ukraine, I have discovered evidence that she is directly peddling Russian government propaganda. Here’s the evidence: Source: dni.gov/files/BIOLAB_Slides.… Slide 1 ironically includes an IC assessment that claims Russia will attempt to spread false narratives about the US’s bio labs in Ukraine, which is exactly what @TulsiGabbard just helped the Russian Government do. Slide 2 contains an AI generated map of Ukraine which is clearly not an IC product, and which contains basic spelling and geographical errors, making a mockery of the US government. Slide 4 contains the internal work product of an American corporation (Black and Veatch) that worked with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in Ukraine. The Russian Government claims to have captured these documents during their invasion of Ukraine. The Russian Government then widely publicized these products in their own official reports in 2022. Gabbard’s political staff (not IC analysts) recycled published propaganda of the Russian Government in an attempt to spread false narratives while falsely claiming the slideshow she released this week is an original work product of US intel agencies. Page 83 of the following document presented by the Russian Government to the UN Security Council shows the exact figure that Gabbard recycled in slide 4 of her release this week. Source: the-trench.org/wp-content/up… Gabbard’s intent with this deception is to conflate the biological safety work being done to prevent dangerous uses of Soviet era pathogens (which has been publicly disclosed since 2005 as the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction framework) with bioweapons production so that Russia has another manufactured excuse to continue its prolonged war with Ukraine. Let’s be clear: there is no evidence that Ukraine in its longstanding cooperative program with the US has engaged in Gain of Function or biological weapons research. But what is clear is Tulsi Gabbard and her staff promulgated Russian intelligence products as American work, in violation of the Espionage Act. My FOIA request to ODNI regarding the production of these documents is being submitted on Monday morning. By law, ODNI has 10 business days to respond. I look forward to reading the emails. The Trump administration should order ODNI to take these Russian documents down today. This is embarrassing for the Trump administration. Nice to know ODNI gets their “intel” and their graphics from Russian intelligence. See photographic evidence below 👇🏻
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
I still am struggling to wrap my head around the fact this is actually happening… Don’t care what your political views are, EVERYONE should be absolutely embarrassed & ashamed that this is happening at the Lincoln Memorial & White House. What a joke.

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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
This is like how Trump called NAFTA “the worst Trade Deal ever made,” rebranded it as USMCA, and then called it “the best and most important trade deal ever made.”
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
A truthful man. Sir Richard Moore about the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service: “I mean, gosh, pound-for-pound they probably knock us into a cocked hat.”
Former MI6 Chief Richard Moore: Without China, Russia would have lost war in Ukraine. North Korean troops and Iranian drones grab headlines. But what keeps Putin in Ukraine is China — chemicals for artillery shells, components for drones and missiles. 1/
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
🚨 SHAMEFUL ERASURE! This corrupt Trump administration ordered the Air Force to scrub the historic achievements of Retired Col. Nicole Malachowski — the FIRST female Thunderbird pilot in 2006! 🔥😡 Pete Hegseth's DEI purge is wiping out documented military history to feed fragile egos. Her legacy is NOT a political slogan — it's FACT! Stop the cover-up!
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
It is frankly embarrassing that a sitting U.S. Vice President is unaware of one of the most elementary facts of World War II. Nazi Germany did not negotiate an end to World War II. The war in Europe ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender after total military defeat and the collapse of the regime in May 1945.
JD Vance: If you go back to WW2 or every major conflict in human history, they all ended with some kind of negotiation.
Community note
World War II ended with unconditional surrenders by Germany on May 8, 1945, and Japan on September 2, 1945, rather than negotiation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconditi… archives.gov/milestone-docu… nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/end…
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Russia is jamming Baltic Sea - 6th proof, 4th method. Pskov, Kaliningrad and Kingisepp stand out as highly likely spots for the jammers, found by analyzing NISAR satellite imagery. Method is copied from work by @SeanGorman and verified by identifying a known jammer, /- 2.5km🧵
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Russia modernizing military bases along entire NATO border - from Norway to Kaliningrad An NRK article, published as part of a joint investigative report with Swedish SVT, Danish DR, and Estonian Delfi, reveals that Russia is rapidly expanding and modernizing its military infrastructure along its western border with NATO countries - with a particular focus on the area right next to Norway. Russia is building new barracks, housing for soldiers and their families, storage halls, vehicle repair facilities, and other infrastructure at multiple sites. This is happening even while Russia is heavily engaged in the war in Ukraine. Western intelligence agencies (including Norway’s) are described as having been surprised by the scale and speed of the work. The most prominent example is in the Pechenga Valley on the Kola Peninsula in Russia’s Murmansk region - only about 11 km from the Norwegian border near Kirkenes. Satellite images show: 🔹New apartment buildings (e.g., five buildings with ~180 apartments); 🔹Barracks and other housing; 🔹Storage and maintenance facilities; 🔹Large areas of forest cleared for construction. Analysts say this single complex could eventually house up to 17,000 soldiers (significantly more than before). Similar construction activity is documented at many other sites along Russia’s 2,424 km border with Northern Europe (from the Arctic down to Kaliningrad). Experts estimate that once the war in Ukraine ends, Russia could station around 115,000 additional troops near its borders with NATO’s northern members. The article frames this as Russia preparing for a possible future confrontation with NATO - not an immediate attack, but laying the groundwork for a stronger posture in the coming years (estimates range from 2–5 years after the Ukraine war ends). Reactions from Norway and NATO: 🔹Norway’s Chief of Defense, Eirik Kristoffersen, warned that if Russia completes this buildup, "the military threat to Norway will increase." 🔹Norwegian intelligence had previously assessed that Russia would not be able to build up forces while fighting in Ukraine - a view that has now changed. 🔹NATO officials and Nordic military leaders describe it as a significant escalation and "huge upscaling" though they note Russia is still primarily focused on Ukraine for now. Russia’s official position is that all these measures are defensive and that it has no intention of attacking NATO. Source: NRK
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Former MI6 Chief Richard Moore: Without China, Russia would have lost war in Ukraine. North Korean troops and Iranian drones grab headlines. But what keeps Putin in Ukraine is China — chemicals for artillery shells, components for drones and missiles. 1/
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
SEN. KELLY: How many times have Vance and Rubio been to Ukraine? Zero. Has Trump been to Ukraine? No. He invited Putin to United States, but he still failed to send anybody at high level in his government to visit Ukraine. Have Kushner or Witkoff been to Ukraine? They have not.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
No petrol in Crimea. People will have to walk to the Kerch Bridge.
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Former U.S. Army and Defense Secretary, Mark Esper: We should increase both economic and military pressure on Russia. We should provide Ukraine weapons they need, allow them to strike deep into Russia, push war onto Russian territory, and put greater pressure on Putin at home. We need to seal holes in sanctions regime, restore lifted sanctions on Russian energy, and impose additional sanctions on Russia. On the military side, we should provide Ukraine with weapons they need, including long-range weapons. And not just provide those weapons, but also give them the ability to strike deep into Russia.
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toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
The world’s first trillionaire Elon Musk, in an email to Jeffrey Epstein: “Do you have any parties planned? I've been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose.”
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