In the early hours of this day 85 years ago, thousands of families across Estonia were woken by a knock on the door, only to be torn from their homes and deported to Siberia by the Soviet regime. During the June 1941 deportations, around 10,000 Estonians, together with tens of thousands of Latvians and Lithuanians, fell victim to Soviet terror. As we honour the victims of these crimes, we must also remember that Russia is using many of the same methods in Ukraine today — deporting children, terrorising civilians, and attempting to erase Ukrainian identity. History teaches us that crimes left unpunished lead to further aggression. It is time to hold Russia accountable.

Regular Russians are now calling for Finns to come and save their collapsing society.

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.

In the early hours of this day 85 years ago, thousands of families across Estonia were woken by a knock on the door, only to be torn from their homes and deported to Siberia by the russian occupation regime

In the early hours of this day 85 years ago, thousands of families across Estonia were woken by a knock on the door, only to be torn from their homes and deported to Siberia by the Soviet regime. During the June 1941 deportations, around 10,000 Estonians, together with tens of thousands of Latvians and Lithuanians, fell victim to Soviet terror. As we honour the victims of these crimes, we must also remember that Russia is using many of the same methods in Ukraine today — deporting children, terrorising civilians, and attempting to erase Ukrainian identity. History teaches us that crimes left unpunished lead to further aggression. It is time to hold Russia accountable.

If you want to measure the impact of a European leader, look at how much energy foreign adversaries spend trying to destroy their reputation. The constant stream of pro-Russian and pro-China propaganda aimed at @kajakallas proves she is a formidable opponent to them, and while the exact powers of the EU High Representative position can potentially be reformed, Kallas has the ideal mindset to confront hostile autocrats. European capitals have every right to analyze and potentially adjust the bureaucratic mandate of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Rethinking how the bloc coordinates its external actions is a standard part of institutional evolution, but any systemic flaws in the office cannot be blamed on Kallas. The concentrated hostility directed at her from state media ecosystems in Russia and China (and some other enemies too) is an involuntary admission that her strategic clarity poses a major problem for them. Their fixation on Kallas confirms her status as a high-stakes obstacle. She has a profound understanding of the psychological games autocrats play, and she refuses to grant them the passive diplomatic concessions they crave. Her clear, unyielding communication style helps insulate the European Union from the gaslighting tactics that hostile regimes use to manipulate Western policy. The narrative attacks against her should therefore be viewed as validation of her approach. Discussions about reforming European diplomacy are healthy, but Kallas herself is not the issue, as her defiant attitude is exactly what is needed to face down modern authoritarian threats

Soviet deportations in Estonia: the June 1941 tragedy estonianworld.com/life/sovie… via @estonianworld #SovietUnion #Estonia #history

Ukrainian woman ‘kept as sex slave by Russian soldier for a year’ thetimes.com/world/russia-uk…

OTD in 1952 we shot down a Swedish Air Force DC-3 in international airspace. Later in the day we shot down a search & rescue plane looking for it We denied it until 1991.

Ukrainian woman ‘kept as sex slave by Russian soldier for a year’ thetimes.com/world/russia-uk…

If you still think this is only Putin’s war and won’t affect you — watch this. Head of the russian Ski Federation, 7-time Olympic champion: “Drop a serious bomb on central London — and we’d be allowed back into international sports.” This is mainstream thinking in russia.

"What’s the point of Crimea if you can’t go anywhere?" - a Russian woman sadly reports that she has to leave Sevastopol due to the fuel crisis. She complains about the lack of gasoline and highly hopes to manage to leave before "they blow up the bridge."

🚨Russia is so desperate for you to believe that Irish Alumina is not ending up in the production of Russian weapons, they’ve sent their Irish mouthspeak and propagandist to Aughinish to film a documentary. Nothing says guilty like sending this guy.