I hate Moscow Oblast Nashis

So... a "pro-Kremlin youth group" called Nashi continue to carry out some sort of quasi-siege of the Estonian embassy, try to attack the Estonian ambassador to Russia at a press conference but get maced for their troubles, and damage the car of the Swedish ambassador to Russia for having the temerity to try to visit the Estonian embassy.

This is pretty worrying behaviour, I would say. The European Union has "strongly urged" Russia to protect the immunity of the diplomats. Russian cops seemed quite effective in breaking up an opposition rally in St Petersburg a short while ago. One wonders why they can't seem to bring this youth group under any sort of control. If one were cynical, one could arrive at the conclusion that they don't want to.

Russia is also thinking about various means to put economic pressure on Estonia. A boycott of Estonian products by individual consumers would be relatively benign, but "maintenance" on a railway grid putting a stop to oil deliveries to Estonia would be more serious.

Then there are the attacks on Estonian government websites. Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that some of them had come from Internet addresses registered to the Russian government. If Paet is correct, it raises the question of why Russia can't find competent 'Net hooligans.

On the Finnish front, President Tarja Halonen broke her silence on the matter. She pretty much repeated what Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva had already said, but it's still a welcome move.