June 28, 2018 - We spent yesterday at sea. The weather continues to be very pleasant and the Baltic Sea has been as smooth as a lake. I am not sure if it is like that all the time, I doubt it, but it has made the passage enjoyable.
It is around 7 am local time and we are tied off at the dock at Tallinn Estonia. Estonia is one of the three Baltic states that won their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. After fifty years of Soviet stagnation, Estonia readily embraced the West and has flourished. Despite it’s small size it is a telecommunication giant. Skype was invented here.
The country was also careful to preserve it’s old medieval quarter. It is a charming old city that was once a vital part of the Hanseatic league trade routes. (Sounds like a super villain group but it was a important trade conglomerate hundreds of years ago, dominated by Germany). Tallinn is a UNESCO world heritage site and also less expensive city than others in Scandinavia so it is a tourist Mecca.
There is tension here however. When Stalin took the place after WWII he relocated thousands of ethnic Russians here. Today around 30-40% of the population is ethnic Russian and they have little interest in assimilation. When Putin took over parts of Ukraine a few years ago, he did it under the pretense of “Protecting local Russians”.
He has made the same threat here. The difference is this little country is a member of NATO. (Ukraine was not). According to article 5 of the NATO charter, if you attack one member of the NATO alliance, you attack them all.
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