Politics & Society

Karl Altau / JBANC The 2022 midterm elections in the United States are in the books. But the counting will continue into December. The election headlines are that the Senate will remain in the hands of Democrats, and Republicans held on to flip the House . Despite the victory, House...

“We’re not for Russia or Ukraine. We’re for peace.” This was Mart Helme’s message on the state broadcasting network’s online portal for Russian speakers. Helme’s own far-right EKRE party leadership were seemingly disturbed by the gaffe, and downplayed its importance. For the public, they ostensibly distanced themselves from Helme’s candour....

JBANC Managing Director Karl Altau was among the speakers at a benefit for a wounded Ukrainian marine at the childhood home of Grace Kelly in Philadelphia on October 29, 2022. Roman Horodensky, a 20-year-old Ukrainian Marine from Odesa, is currently undergoing prosthetic rehabilitation in Philadelphia. He went to defend Ukraine...

The next in-person “Washington Ukraine Days” advocacy event will be held in Washington, DC November 15-17, 2002. The advocacy event is sponsored and organized by the Ukrainian National Information Service (UNIS), the Washington, DC public affairs bureau of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA). If you are interested in...

When last checked in July on these pages (“The Summer of NDAA”), the United States House of Representatives was primed to vote on the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That vote occurred on July 14, passing on a bipartisan 329-101 vote, and authorizing nearly $840 billion in...

Estonia in 1940 and Ukrai-ne in 2014 and 2022 – the similarities are remarkably striking. In June 1940, the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the independent countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as foreseen by the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Communist Russia and Nazi Germany. Blatantly rigged “parliamentary elections” were...

Vaba Eesti Sõna has served the Estonian-American community for 73 years. Born during the period of post-war Estonian emigration to the US, it has served as a unifying voice for Estonian-Americans, wherever they might live. It is the chronicle for our activities in this country, and it is the only...

It’s perhaps one of the questions most often posed recently. At the time of this writing, Ukrainian forces were making significant gains in the eastern Russian-occupied areas. In fact, a sense of an inevitable Ukrainian victory was palpable. Putin’s bound to retaliate. But will an end to the conflict, which...

The Embassy of Estonia in Washington, DC, will be closed for relocation from September 22nd through October 5th. The good news is that after almost two years of renovation, the Embassy will be able to move back to its original location on 2131 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 20008.This will...

Karl Altau, JBANC In August, a delegation of 15 representatives from Pärnu County in Estonia visited St. Mary’s County in Maryland, about an hour’s drive southeast of Washington, DC. They were there to promote a budding relationship, which had officially gotten its start in December 2019, but was slowed down...