euro|topics - Igor Taro

21/11/2008

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Taro, Igor

4 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Postimees - Estonia | 07/11/2008

Nationalist interests

The Estonian daily Postimees was not particularly surprised by Medvedev's announcement: "Let's say Iskander missiles are indeed set up in the Kaliningrad area. So what? Let us not forget that Medvedev's speech was preceded by the annual speech of predecessor Vladimir Putin in which he announced that Russia would be upgrading its weapons arsenal. ... What's more, Moscow already threatened to aim its nuclear weapons at Poland and the Czech Republic when they signed the agreements with the US. And why not Ukraine, too, if it refuses to give up its bid for Nato membership? Russia is dictated by nationalist interests and tends to embark on adventures with an aggressive and expansionist undertone, although that almost sounds like a cliché."

Postimees - Estonia | 15/02/2008

Putin's last press conference as president

In yesterday's speech Putin once again demonstrated his ability to manipulate, Igor Taro writes, accusing Putin of using double standards: "[In his speech] Putin lumped the West together as a unified whole and sought to rebut European fears about the state of democracy in Russia by citing the sins of the Americans in Vietnam several decades ago. ... When it comes to Russia's arsenal of nuclear weapons, we are sufficiently aware of its strength to know that deploying a couple of defence missiles in Poland hardly constitutes a threat to Russian security. Putin dismisses a democratic election campaign as populism. But what, then, is a two-hour monologue in front of the television cameras?"

Postimees - Estonia | 01/10/2007

Deceptive stability in post-Soviet politics

Igor Taro interprets the good results obtained by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich's Party of Regions in the Ukrainian elections as a misguided desire for stability: "This desire dominates the societies of many CIS states where elections are merely a formality, for example Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. In all these countries the same elite has been in power since 1990. Yet its main goal is not more prosperity for the people. People living in the post-Soviet area need to understand that economic growth is not a result of the alleged stability, but quite the contrary: at a time when the political crisis in Ukraine was at its worst the economy was booming."

Postimees - Estonia | 11/09/2006

September 11 - five years on

Igot Taro contends that September 11 has had the effect of bringing the US and Russia closer – something that would have been unimaginable just five years ago. He points out that both countries have used the slogan "war on terror" to serve their own interests. "This slogan has enabled the US to get rid of what it regarded as problematic regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq and it has allowed Russia to go ahead with campaigns on its own soil: the war in Chechnya could now be fought as a war against terrorism… Since 9/11 it has become almost obligatory to seek a connection to al-Qaeda behind every shot fired. This has given Moscow an excuse to weaken federal structures: since the tragedy in Beslan, it has been able to take the necessary and long prepared steps virtually without opposition. Those who thought five years ago that the terrible tragedy in New York would induce the great powers to put aside their ambitions and join forces to create a better world were simply naïve."

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