Gedankenexperiment of sitting in Estonia

Mr Jeremy Smith proposes a Gedankenexperiment of sitting in Estonia. Great. Let’s play. Imagine yourself living in a relatively rich and developed, even since (and especially in) Soviet times, country, whose main exports are not daughters and sons, unlike Ukraine or, formerly, Ireland, but digital products, financial services, and tourism. The most wired country in Europe, where digital government was being successfully implemented already in times when Estonian-born Skype topped the charts as an industry-leading messenger. Still you can’t forget that this same country is the northernmost of the three north of the Suwalki Gap and, speaking in yawn-inducing Politico’s words, it’s “standing in Vladimir Putin’s crosshairs.”

Your most sane choice in a game that you wouldn’t want to end losing? To bridge West and North, not to depict yourself and your bronze soldiers in a war paint.

Ukraine choose the path of animosity between West and East, denoting itself as “not Russia,” hence it reaps what had been sown.

Countries of Baltic region are even less suited to the role of cannon fodder; alas, their main export now seems the warmongering.