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by Kristofer Jäntti
Introduction to the Series
‘A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of Populism’. Since the 1980’s Europe seems to be in the grips of a ‘populist zeitgeist’. It manifests itself in the success of organisations such as Jean Marie Le Pen’s Front National in France or Geert Wilder’s Party of Freedom in the Netherlands. Finland too has not remained immune to the spreading virus, seeing the recent stellar rise of the True Finns, or, to use their new official English name, simply ‘Finns’.

Every year we are trying to encourage our readers and correspondents to send us their best winter snapshots from all around the Baltic rim. However, it seems that most contributions come from Kuopio in Northern Savonia, Finland.
The image below features the Puijo Tower. Its revolving restaurant makes the 75 meter high observation tower one of the city’s most visited tourist attractions.

Winter in Kuopio – © Leena-Mari Laukkanen

by Anna-Cara Keim
Putinism is an expression widely used to describe the ruling style of Russia’s current president Vladimir Putin. This ruling style has been described as a guided democracy with a carefully managed economy resembling the rent-seeking oil economies of the Persian Gulf. Moreover, gas and energy have also become Russia’s defining foreign policy features. Media censorship might not be comparable to the days of the Soviet Union – however, it is ensured that the life of the few remaining independent and critical journalists is as difficult as possible.

Politicians in Central and Eastern Europe are taking to Twitter in increasing numbers – but with mixed results, finds Philipp Köker.

by Mateusz Zatonski
Dominic Lieven’s Russia and the Origins of the First World War, first published in 1983, remains one of the classics in the historiography of the causes of WWI. At a lecture given at the London School of Economics on February 5th, Prof Lieven reviewed some of the hypotheses that informed his assessment of Russia’s decision to enter the conflict in view of the accessibility of new archival materials in Russia.

Source: Amazon

by Teodor Kalpakchiev
The recognition of the role of Internet and digital technologies can easily be judged by the self-criticism in the latest Digital Agenda for communication in Europe[1]. With the presence of 50 million wireless devices by 2020, Europe should provide the necessary digital solutions to pave the way to the already existent ICT growth. But when it comes down to the question of increasing public value through technology, the conclusions are superficially connected solely with money saving through e-Procurement and e-Government.

by Kristofer Jäntti, Anna-Cara Keim and Mateusz Zatonski 

Upon popular request we have introduced a weekly news update from the Baltic Sea Region. Every Sunday we will give an update of the news of the week on our specially created Baltic Bulletin.
This week we are presenting you with a news roundup from Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Russia.
Please follow the link: http://thebalticbulletin.wordpress.com/

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There are currently a  number of interesting projects happening in the Baltic Sea Region  that are financed by the European Union through its “Baltic Sea Region Programme”.
However, it was pointed out to Crossing the Baltic that some of these projects sadly remain completely unnoticed by the public – even within the region.

Despite big inroads from ‘Coca-Cola Christmas’, Easter remains the most important and most celebrated religious holiday in the still strongly Catholic Poland.

Wayside shrines of the Virgin Mary are common all around Poland. Before religious holidays such as Easter they are adorned with flowers by the local inhabitants.  © Mateusz Zatonski

The tradition of ‘Święconka’ brings Poles to their local churches on Holy Saturday to get baskets filled with a sampling of Easter foods blessed by their local parish priests.  © Mateusz Zatonski