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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes)

@badbaltictakes.bsky.social
1.8K followers 8 following 257 posts

“Baltic Takes skewers the lazy prejudices of the foreign commentariat and serves them up sizzling.” - Edward Lucas

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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 6h
Countries usually like to keep quiet about espionage cases. Sometimes that helps gather more counter-intelligence without revealing methods. Often though, it can just be about saving face and keeping relations uncomplicated. Those days are over: www.baltictakes.com/estonia-just...
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 29/09/2026
Badbaltictakes is now simply Baltic Takes. Been spending time in Latvia, talking to wonderful followers about how we better amplify Baltic perspectives, not just play whack-a-mole with bad takes thirsty for attention. “So why didn’t you just shorten the name to Baltic Takes?” they pointed out.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 29/09/2026
Estonia’s Internal Security Service (KAPO) has officially attributed an arson attack against a defence company to Russia. “Estonia remains a safe and secure country, and we are committed to doing everything necessary to keep it that way.”
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 27/09/2026
‘Golden arches theory’ is still not aging well, as this McDonalds warehouse burns in Ukraine after a Russian attack. Let’s talk about this. Thomas Friedman came up with the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention in the 90s, arguing that countries with McDonalds don’t fight each other. 🧵..
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 26/09/2026
Great journalism here in the Times from Oliver Moody, Larisa Brown, and Marc Bennetts listened to a wide range of European security officials and defence ministers. A quick summary.🧵 www.thetimes.com/world/russia...
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Reposted by Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes)
heepst @heepst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You've verbalized what bugs me about the debate. People assume that Estonians and Balts haven't been paying attention to the Russian threat or what tactics Russia has employed in Ukraine. They also assume that there are active separatist movements in the region. None of these assumptions are true.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 26/09/2026
The CIA revised down its assessment of Russia’s threat to NATO, reports Michaeld Weiss on The Bulwark. Despite a lot of “clickbait bullshit” this week, the CIA is aligned with European intelligence agencies, including in the Baltics.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 25/09/2026
That Danish intelligence report is broadly in line with what the Baltics are saying. The threat assessment is unchanged here. Leipzig shows how all of Europe is threatened by Russia - and all of Europe could actually learn more from the Baltics. Full story: www.badbaltic.com/listen-to-th...
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 24/09/2026
When you’re so anti-imperialist that you think only Westerners have agency. Greetings from the Baltic countries, by the way. Do us next. In that same period, the Baltics achieved some of the highest levels of human freedoms and fastest growth in the world.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 23/09/2026
Wow. Nearly 40% of US senators are now part of the Baltic Freedom Caucus. According to Alex Raufoglu, Senior Washington Correspondent for Radio Free Europe, that means the Baltic Freedom Caucus has just become the largest Senate caucus connected to a country or region.
static.klipy.com
Popular Press
ALT: Popular Press
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 23/09/2026
John Mearsheimer is hailed as an intellectual titan by both ends of the political spectrum. Tucker Carlson called him “an oracle” who is “universally respected” for being a smart authority on Russia. His recent visit to Russia seems to raise some doubt about that: www.badbaltic.com/acclaimed-ru...
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 22/09/2026
Hasan Piker has broken ranks with John Mearsheimer following his visit to Russia, saying that the realist scholar is too sympathetic to Russia and too overconfident about its situation. Unrealistic, you might say.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 19/09/2026
The world’s wrongest man, John Mearsheimer, says he was effectively penniless during his recent visit to Russia because the “Russia expert” didn’t know his US credit card wouldn’t work there.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 17/09/2026
The flags of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were first raised at the UN 35 years ago today. We could finally get back to helping build a better rules-based world for all sovereign nations.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 17/09/2026
Sean Thomas is a journalist and author from the extraordinary riverside city of London, basically an Italian Imperial Warsaw, now stranded in England. It makes one mourn for what Italy, and Europe, might have been, absent the barbarian invasions.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 15/09/2026
The Baltic countries warned the world what Russia is. They were exactly right.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 15/09/2026
As if “hybrid” wasn’t bad enough, we also keep hearing media reports about “stray” drones entering the Baltics. Were the drones that Russia deployed in Leipzig also stray?
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 14/09/2026
Lithuania’s most pro-Kremlin politician, Eduardas Vaitkus, has had to abandon his campaign to get a seat in Parliament. Candidates needed at least 1,000 nominations from residents to run. According to the Central Electoral Commission, Vaitkus recorded just 25 electronic nominations.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 14/09/2026
A Serbian tennis coach who celebrated a russian missile strike on the home of a Ukrainian tennis star has just been suspended. Vladimir Odobasic wrote “Bravo Rusija,” on a post by Dayana Yastremska showing the destruction to her apartment block by a Russian Kalibr cruise missile on Friday.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 13/09/2026
Congratulations, @glandsbergis.bsky.social, on your French state honour. Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has some of the sharpest takes that all Europeans need to hear. France has now awarded him with the Knight's Cross of the French Legion of Honour.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 09/09/2026
A Chinese official attempted some of that Wolf Warrior Diplomacy ™ shit. It did not go well. Philippines' Defence Minister Gilberto Teodoro was speaking up for smaller nations and international law at a forum in Korea when he was handed a note from a Chinese official, meant as intimidating.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 08/09/2026
The thing about “Russia experts” like Ragozin is that their analysis makes zero sense when you step back from the news cycle. They rapidly shift their tone, messaging, and underlying logic to whatever best amplifies Kremlin narratives to Western audiences at the edge of the current Overton window.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 07/09/2026
We just published an exclusive new investigation into Dan Boeckner, guitarist for Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, who continues to spread hateful bigotry against Baltic and Ukrainian peoples.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 03/09/2026
Poor Colin, just waking up from his four year coma.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 02/09/2026
Estonia has elected Ülle Madise as the Republic’s next President. Estonia continues to stand with Ukraine, says Madise, and any peace settlement must be just for Ukrainians, not reward aggression, and must not be negotiated over Ukraine’s head.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 02/09/2026
They have lost their damn minds. Sorry for the delay, but few people in the Baltics had time to read this nonsense because we were too busy celebrating the return to schools and focused on our own future in our own Republics.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 02/09/2026
Ukraine closed its civilian airspace at 2:45 am on 24 February 2022. It had to be done to protect civilian lives in response to Russian activity and threats, roughly an hour before Russia began its full scale war of aggression against Ukraine.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 31/08/2026
32 years ago today, the last Soviet/Russian occupation forces in the Baltics were made to gather up their jackets and move it to the exits, never to return.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 30/08/2026
Deception and disruption are hardly new concepts in warfare. If that’s “hybrid war” then Sun Tzu’s Art of War, written in the 5th century BC, is basically just a hybrid war manual. And yet the term has shot up in popularity in the last year or two, especially among "concerned" European officials.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 29/08/2026
I like this Bluesky place. Thank you @keirgiles.bsky.social for 10xing my followers today & thank you all for a warm welcome. Tonight we say farewell to summer with the night of ancient bonfires here around the Baltic coast. Challenging times ahead this winter and beyond, so let’s stay connected!
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 29/08/2026
“Hybrid schmybrid.” says the Estonian spy chief in this rare interview. We should abandon euphemisms, according to Kaupo Rosin, and call Russia’s sabotage and subversion by its proper name of “state-sponsored terrorism”.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 28/08/2026
What a week. Full story: www.badbaltic.com/baltics-warn...
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 27/08/2026
While Andrew Tate falsely claimed to be an Estonian citizen, his brother Tristan has been oddly angered by.. er, Baltic desynchronisation from the Russian power grid. 🤷‍♂️ Full story: www.badbaltic.com/andrew-tate-...
badbaltic.com
Andrew Tate is not an Estonian citizen, his lawyers admit in court
In addition to not meeting any language or civic requirements, his attempt to look tough in a sauna would have immediately disqualified him anyway.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 27/08/2026
This would have immediately disqualified Tate from Estonian citizenship anyway. He’s sitting BELOW the stones, far out of reach from the bucket, all while posing as a tough guy in a mild sauna. No leil (sauna steam), no friends/family. GTFO of our holy place.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 26/08/2026
Lawyers for Andrew Tate have had to admit in court that he is not a citizen of Estonia as he previously claimed. Much of his wealth and status is fabricated, they said while arguing he is not a flight risk if released on bail. That included his claims to seven passports.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 26/08/2026
If the Nazi-Soviet Pact was just 4D chess then why did no one involved ever take credit? Why did Stalin and Molotov deny to their deaths that they had agreed to carve up Europe, the key part of the agreement? Why did the Soviet Union brutally censor discussion of the topic for half a century?
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 25/08/2026
In the history of bad ideas, the Nazi-Soviet Pact may be the very worst of them all. Here's an idiot's guide for those who still need it. www.badbaltic.com/it-looks-lik...
badbaltic.com
It looks like you're trying to justify the Nazi-Soviet Pact
In the history of bad ideas, the Nazi-Soviet Pact may be the very worst of them all. Here's an idiot's guide for those who still need it.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 25/08/2026
They really don't want you to call it the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Notice that Russia always refers to Nazi Germany EXCEPT when justifying its pact to carve up Europe with them, which is the only time they always refer to Nazi Germany as only Germany.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 23/08/2026
Because if you’re preparing for an impending attack then obviously the first thing you’d do is help your enemy expand their territory and then provide substantial economic, logistical, and material support to aid their war machine, while aligning your propaganda and purging critics of your enemy.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 23/08/2026
Vyacheslav Molotov must have been the most modest man who ever lived. Because we keep hearing from tankies that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was all just a brilliant 4D chess move. Yet Molotov never took credit for it! He denied the key part, its secret protocol to divide Europe, his whole life.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 23/08/2026
Here’s how the world reacted to the Baltic Chain on this day in 1989, as two million turned their backs on Moscow to demand freedom. The report is centred on the protestors, their perspectives, and the historical context without the imperial lens. A lot of journalists today can learn from this.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 21/08/2026
Estonians have an expression: Kui juba, siis juba. Basically: If we’re gonna do something, let’s really do it. So here’s BadBaltic.com What started as a snarky Twitter (and now Bluesky) account is now also an online magazine, Bad Baltic.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 15/08/2026
Nebius has “no history with Yandex”. Well, except being the same legal entity with the same CEO and hundreds of the same engineers from Russia. 🤷‍♂️
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 08/08/2026
We found some interesting things in the ruins of that Superior Civilization™. That photo on the left is (I think) an RT-64 radio telescope in Russia, similar to the RT-32 Irbene Radio Telescope in Latvia built to spy on the West. Actually though, it contained tapes of pirated Western pop music.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 06/08/2026
“Just lies. Absolute bullshit,” says Latvian blogger Maksometr, reflecting on his new life in Belarus. Maksometr used to spread a lot of false information about life in Latvia - including that Latvia was mining the border to prevent Latvians from fleeing to Russia and Belarus.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 05/08/2026
Finally managed to grab a last pack of this. Those calls for a boycott apparently didn’t work very well. #stillnotasponsoredpost
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 04/08/2026
It’s time.
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Baltic Takes (formerly badbaltictakes) @baltictakes.com · 04/08/2026
Latvia, August 1992. The country is still occupied by 60k Russian troops. Part 1: The newly established Latvian National Guard (🔵) confronts a drunk, abusive group of them (🛑). And just when you think it’s all over…
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