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" Democracies stand on several key pillars: Free and fair elections, human rights, the rule of law, and a free untrammeled media. Until 2016, an open media was seen as a resilient democratic pillar that supported the others. "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Law

Elections

Free

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" When our diplomats go abroad, they are surprised that they can't do the things that they can do here. "

" Little by little, we're becoming a boring Nordic country. "

" People who come out of the liberal arts don't have an understanding of science and technology, and the people in science and technology have very little experience with liberal arts and the traditions of a liberal democracy. "

" Since I've been writing about things my entire life, I thought, 'Well, that's what I would do as a president is to read and then write and talk about things that are interesting to me.' "

" The minute a collective alliance fails to live up to its agreement to collective defence, then from that moment on, everybody is on the run. "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Agreement

Run

" Fake news is cheap to produce. Genuine journalism is expensive. "

" George Bush and I share a love of steel brush cutters. It turns out we use the same professional brush cutter. He asked me what I did. I said I cut brush. He says, 'Oh, what do you use?' I said steel. He goes, 'Oh, me too.' "

" Sanctions work over time. They do work, but it takes years for them to have an effect. "

" The problem of online identity is expressed best in an old 'New Yorker' cartoon with a picture of a dog next to a computer, and the dog says, 'No one online knows you're a dog.' "

" Can the wider West establish a global 'cyber NATO?' It would be difficult, but so, too, was the founding of NATO itself, which was called into being only after successive communist coups in Eastern Europe. "

" Brits, Scandinavians, Finns, Estonians consider themselves rational, logical, unencumbered by emotional arguments; we are businesslike, stubborn, and hard-working. "

" I realised that if we were not in the E.U., there were people in the E.U. who were also members of NATO that would veto our joining NATO. "

" The E-government cabinet, E-health services, online voting, online pre-filled tax returns, e-mobile parking, are all examples of Estonian innovation, but far more importantly, they are examples of the transformative power of intensive and extensive use of Information Technology in the public sector. "

" The Russian Federation's practice of instant citizenship, whereby Russian passports are distributed willy-nilly to ethnic Russians abroad so they can be 'protected' in their current homeland, is unacceptable. Passports are travel documents, not a tool to justify aggression. "

" Where a country lies is a subjective decision and only in part a product of its own desire. Much, if not most, is determined by what others believe about it. "

" Democracy is messy, clearly, but it has one key factor, which is an orderly transfer of power. "

" Cybersecurity needs to be taken seriously by everyone. "

" It is hard to work with the nagging doubt that perhaps some foreign intelligence agency is reading all your correspondence, especially when you know they have done so in the past. "

" It's much cheaper to influence elections than it is to go to war. "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

War

Influence

" Social media has become a primary factor in political campaigns. "

" The first time cyber was even a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, which is - I mean, we've got hundreds of specialists there - was 2011. That's how long it took. "

" The fake news is - I mean, as a tool of warfare - has been there for decades and decades and decades. It was never very well done until, really, the Ukraine, though I would say that the Russians used to complain about fake things to say the State Department. "

" People have actually figured out that Estonia is one of the few post-Communist countries that has a genuine image in people's minds as being something. "

" The domestic policy of any president, U.S. or otherwise, is his or her own concern, as long as democratic norms are followed. "

" Russia has had very aggressive military exercises. They've practiced mock nuclear attacks on Warsaw. Russian bombers practiced attacking strategic military targets in Sweden. The military aggression gets everybody nervous. "

" I was surprised by some of my French colleagues who immediately assumed that because I spoke English with an American accent, that, therefore, you must be a supporter of whoever is the current president of the United States. There seems to be this widespread feeling that, 'Oh, American accent - therefore, you like cowboy boots.' "

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Feeling

You

" In both Russia and the U.S., there are a very small number of very, very rich people, and then there are a lot of people who don't have anything. The less inequality you have in a society, the more social peace you have. It's kind of a no-brainer. "

" There was a period in my life when I was very young that I wrote a sonnet a day just to learn concision in writing. "

" My American undergraduate education probably gave me a better idea of the fundamentals of what European civilization is about, better than the undergraduate education you get at most European universities. "