Politics & Society

Siim Sööt, Honorary Consul of Estonia in Chicago This is the first of three articles that explore where people of Estonian ancestry live in the United States. This article focuses on the number of individuals of Estonian ancestry (hereafter called US Estonians) and the recent change in that number. The...

Karl Altau / JBANC On August 1, 2023, the Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC) hosted a visit and briefing in the United States Congress for rising high-school seniors from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The three dozen students had completed a three-week program in Maine under the auspices of the...

There is an expression: turning swords into ploughshares, restoring despair to hope, war to peace, and putting an end to the chaos that has now taken over our major cities, where thousands are cowering behind closed curtains, while mobs are massing in the streets, looting, trashing, and burning what we...

Members of the Riigikogu's Economic Affairs Committee want to reopen talks with the government about Estonia's participation in the World EXPO in Japan. They question whether denying entrepreneurs opportunities is the best way to save money. The government, after Minister of Economic Affairs Tiit Riisalo's (Eesti 200) decision, ruled out...

Estonian residents have the highest trust in the rescue service, Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), and the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF), new polling commissioned by the Ministry of Defense shows. The Rescue Service is considered to be completely or mostly trustworthy by 96 percent of Estonian residents, the Police...

The short-lived June 23-24 Russian mutiny led by the Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin placed the instability of Russia on full display, from the uncertain domestic military response to the coup attempt to the dissonance of Putin’s message labeling Prigozhin and Wagner as traitors. The fact remains that the Wagner Group...

Karl Altau / JBANC The NATO Summit will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, from July 11 to 12, 2023. Depending on Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive against Russian occupiers, we will soon find out the possible path for Ukraine’s further integration with the West. Ukraine has already been offered an EU Membership...

On May 19, 2023, the Estonian American National Council (EANC) held a town hall for purposes of gathering input and ideas on the future of the beloved international Estonian festival known as ESTO. The event was held over Zoom, attended by approximately 75 Estonian Americans from across the USA, a...

Five years ago, a survey conducted among 2000 citizens by WCIOM, a Russian public opinion polling centre, offered results that could well be authentic. Since the subject matter was apolitical, respondents’ answers could be considered as genuine. The five most prevalent conspiracy theories in 2018, in reverse order by the...

The new director and CEO of the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom in Tallinn, Karen Jagodin, visited the Latvian Museum in Rockville, and the JBANC office on May 4. Ms Jagodin was in the United States during Vabamu’s 20th anniversary this year to promote new initiatives and future exhibits...