{"id":18818,"date":"2024-05-02T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18818"},"modified":"2024-05-02T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T05:05:00","slug":"why-russian-jamming-threatens-to-dampen-tartus-year-of-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/?p=18818","title":{"rendered":"Why Russian jamming threatens to dampen Tartu&#8217;s year of celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Ongoing GPS jamming in the Baltic has led to all flights to Tartu in Estonia being cancelled. With Russia the likely culprit, Baltic foreign ministers are calling for a joint NATO response.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The departures and arrivals board at Tartu Airport is currently a depressing sight. In what should be a year of joy and celebration for Estonia\u2019s second-largest city, a European Capital of Culture, the only daily flight\u2014a Finnair service from Helsinki\u2014has been suspended until at least May 31 over safety concerns. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, two Finnair flights to Tartu were forced to return to Helsinki because of deliberate GPS interference, colloquially referred to as jamming. The route had only reopened at the beginning of April having been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/economy-in-focus-estonia-2\/\">Economy in focus: Estonia<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/made-in-emerging-europe\/the-estonian-delivery-robots-set-to-take-over-the-world\/\">The Estonian delivery robots set to take over the world<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/news\/estonia-tops-future-of-emerging-europe-sustainability-index-but-the-whole-region-must-do-more-to-address-demographic-decline\/\">Estonia tops Future of Emerging Europe Sustainability Index<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe GPS interference in Tartu forces us to suspend flights until alternative solutions have been established,\u201d Finnair said on Monday, adding that it hoped to find an alternative solution to allow its planes to land in the city safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blame for the jamming has been placed squarely at the door of Russia. Last weekend, the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all warned separately at the of the dangers of GPS jamming across the whole Baltic Sea region, which has increased in recent weeks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf someone turns off your headlights while you\u2019re driving at night, it gets dangerous. Things in the Baltic region near Russian borders are now getting too dangerous to ignore,\u201d Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania\u2019s foreign minister, told the Financial Times.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Time for NATO to act<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the Finnair decision to suspend flights to Tartu\u2014which is likely to have a real impact on the university city\u2019s economy in its showpiece year\u2014 Estonia\u2019s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said it is a \u201cfact\u201d that Russia is jamming GPS devices in Baltic airspace, adding that he views the jamming as \u201ca hybrid attack\u201d and that he plans to broach the subject with NATO allies and EU partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We have to call things by the words they are. And it is a fact that Russia is influencing GPS devices in our airspace, not just in Estonia, but in our whole region. And it is international news when international airlines announce that they cannot land in one place or another because of Russian interference,&#8221; he told Estonian public broadcaster ERR.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, Germany also said Russia was very likely behind a series of disturbances affecting navigation in the Baltic region. The German Defence Ministry pointed to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad as the source, though it declined to give any details citing &#8220;reasons of military security.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In January, Dana Goward, a member of the US Presidents\u2019s National Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing National Advisory Board, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2024\/01\/as-baltics-see-spike-in-gps-jamming-nato-must-respond\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> that, \u201cjamming presents a risk to thousands of commercial aircraft, and as international pressure has so far failed to halt the interference, it\u2019s time for NATO to act\u2014proportionally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>GPS interference has also been encountered in the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. It is perpetrated in two forms: jamming, which makes it impossible for pilots to know their precise location using GPS; and spoofing, whereby the aircraft\u2019s systems are tricked into representing the wrong position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">There&#8217;s still the train<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>While most larger airports\u2014including Lennart Meri Airport in Estonia\u2019s capital Tallinn\u2014use alternative approach methods, some smaller airports, such as Tartu, require GPS.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tartu2024.ee\/\">European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024<\/a> is the most important cultural event to take place in Estonia for several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The year-long programme\u2014which encompasses Tartu and all of Southern Estonia\u2014includes more than 1000 events showcasing the region\u2019s cultural heritage and diversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the time being at least, visitors wanting to enjoy it all will need to travel to the city by train from Tallinn.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@mareklumi?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Marek Lumi<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/there-is-a-sign-that-says-tartuga-in-a-town-square-CDA0NYntMPM?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Unlike many news and information platforms,&nbsp;<em>Emerging Europe<\/em>&nbsp;is free to read, and always will be.&nbsp;There is no paywall here.&nbsp;We are independent,&nbsp;not affiliated with nor representing any political party or business&nbsp;organisation.&nbsp;We want the very best for emerging Europe, nothing more, nothing less. Your support will help us continue to spread the word about this amazing region.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can contribute&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Thank you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emergingeurope.krtra.com\/t\/NlQnFuOA2C9c\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emerging-europe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/copy-of-add-a-heading.png\" alt=\"emerging europe support independent journalism\" class=\"wp-image-50811\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-background has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-cyan-bluish-gray-color is-style-wide\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ongoing GPS jamming in the Baltic has led to all flights to Tartu in Estonia being cancelled. With Russia the likely culprit, Baltic foreign ministers are<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6666,6588,7271,7269,7270,7272,6596,6603,7250],"class_list":["post-18818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-defence","tag-estonia","tag-european-capital-of-culture-2024","tag-finnair","tag-gabrielius-landsbergis","tag-margus-tsahkna","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-tartu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reinvantage-dev.eonserver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}