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Ants Laaneots
Ants Laaneots
	Laaneots in 2015
Nickname(s)	"Tanki Ants"
Born	16 January 1948 (age 76); Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia
Allegiance	Soviet Union (1966–1991); Estonia (1991–present)
Service / branch	Soviet Army; Estonian Defense Force
Years of service	1966–2011
Rank	General
Commands	Commander of the Defence Forces; Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College; Chief of the General Staff
Battles / wars	Ethiopian Civil War
Awards	1st Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle; Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland ; Commander 1st class of the Order of the Polar Star; Commander Degree of the Legion of Merit

Ants Laaneots (born 16 January 1948) is an Estonian politician and former military officer. He was previously the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces and a veteran officer in the Soviet Army. Laaneots previously served as the Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College from 2001 to 2006. He was appointed the Commander-in-Chief on 5 December 2006 and was promoted to general in 2011. After retiring from the military, he became a politician.

Early life and education

Laaneots was born on 16 January 1948 in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia. In 1948 the NKVD arrested his father for being a forest brother. For that he was deported to Siberia between 1949–1958.^[1] His mother died there in 1952. A year after finishing school, he worked as an assistant to a railway mechanic at Pääsküla railway station.^[2] In July 1966 he entered the Higher Military School in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and graduated in 1970 as an Army Tank Officer assigned to the Kiev Military District.^[2] He specialized in the T-64 Tank.

Career

From 1970 to 1978, he served as a platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander of the 300th Tank Regiment for the Soviet Army in Ukraine, mostly commanding fleets of T-64 Tanks. From 1978 to 1981, Laaneots studied in the Malinovsky Military Academy of Armored Forces (Военная академия бронетанковых войск им. Р. Я. Малиновского) in Moscow for an armored brigade commander's course, and to qualify on the newly introduced T-80 Tank. From 1981 to 1987, he was posted to the Soviet-Chinese border in Eastern Kazakhstan. During this assignment he served as the Executive Officer of the 96th Tank Regiment, two years as the Commander of the 180th Tank Regiment, and three years as the Deputy Commander-Chief of Staff of the 78th Armored Division.

From 1987 to 1989, he deployed to Ethiopia where he spent one year as the military advisor to the commander of an infantry division, and a year and a half as the military advisor to the commanding general of an army corps participating in combat activities. Before his resignation from the Soviet Army in September 1991, he served as the Chief of Regional Department of Defence, Tartu in Estonia.^[3]

kindralleitnant (English: lieutenant general) Laaneots
Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Defence Forces (r) with Stanley Davis Phillips, US Ambassador to Estonia

After 1991

Laaneots was one of the founding-officers of the Estonian Army, defecting from the Soviet Army after the August 1991 attempted coup in Moscow. After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, Laaneots served two times as the Chief of the General Staff – from 1991 to 1994, and from 1997 to 1999. He was crucial in transforming the doctrine and tactics of the Estonian Defence Forces from a Soviet mode to a NATO and western mode. From 1994 to 1996 he was in reserve (Director of the Security company AS ESS Lõuna). In 1997 Laaneots was appointed to the position of Inspector General of the Defence Forces. During his second tenure, in 1998, he graduated from the NATO Defence College in Rome, Italy.

In 1998, he was promoted to kindralmajor (English: Major general). In 2000, after a year at the course in the Finnish National Defence College, he was appointed the head of the Baltic Defence Research Centre located in Estonia. From September 2001 through to December 2006, he was Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College. Ants Laaneots was appointed the Commander of the Defence Forces on 5 December 2006. He stepped down as Commander of the Defence Forces on 5 December 2011 after his 5-year term ended.

Politics

As of 12 December 2011, he worked as prime minister Andrus Ansip's advisor in matters of national defence.^[4] That job ended on 28 March 2014 at the end of Andrus Ansip's term in office.^[5] Laaneots joined the Reform Party in late 2014.^[6] In the 2015 parliamentary election, Laaneots was elected to the parliament with 5,907 individual votes.^[7]

In 2016, after NATO soldiers in Estonia were targeted with racist insults by locals, Laaneots stated that Russians directed the vitriol in order to compromise the relationship between Estonia and the U.S.^[8]

Effective dates of promotion

Soviet Army

See Military ranks of the Soviet Union

Promotions
Insignia	Rank	Date
	Lieutenant (лейтена́нт)	1970
	Senior Lieutenant (ста́рший лейтена́нт)	1973
	Captain (капита́н)	1975
	Major (майо́р)	1979
	Lieutenant Colonel (подполко́вник)	1982
	Colonel (полко́вник)	1987

Estonian Army

See Military ranks of Estonia

Promotions
Insignia	Rank	Date
	Colonel (kolonel)	1992
	Major General (kindralmajor)	19 June 1998^[9]
	Lieutenant General (kindralleitnant)	18 February 2008^[10]
	General (kindral)	16 June 2011^[11]

Awards, decorations, and recognition

Awards and decorations

Estonian Awards and decorations
	1st Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle	23 February 2012
	2nd Class of the Order of the Cross of the Eagle	23 February 2000
	White Cross of the Estonian Defence League (I class)	11 November 2011
	White Cross of the Estonian Defence League (III class)
	Cross of Merit of the Ministry of Defence (I class)	23 February 2011
	Distinguished Service Decoration of the EDF	23 February 1998
	Order of Merit of the Estonian Defence Forces	18 February 2005
	Gold Cross of the Officer of Land Forces
	Navy decoration " Belief and the Will " Class II " Silver Anchor "
	Estonian Defence Forces General Staff Cross of Merit	12 November 2003
	Merit Medal of the Defence League Special Class
	Memorial Medal "10 Years of the Re-Established Defence Forces"
	Armed Resistance Cross of Merit
	The Baltic Defence College Medal of Merit (gold)
	NCO School Medal of Merit
	Memorial Cross "Spearhead Admiral Pitka"
	Distinguished Service Decoration of the Police and Border Guard Board
	Police Cross of Merit 2nd class
	Golden Cross of the Rescue Board
	Border Guard Cross of Merit I Class
	Memorial Medal 10 Years of the Re-Established Border Guard (I Class)
	Cross of the Estonian Reserve Officers' Assembly (gold)	12 June 2001^[12]
	Admiral Johan Pitka Brothers-in-Arms Club Medal of Merit
	St. George's Night Great Star	2007^[13]
Foreign Awards
	Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland	(Finland)
	Commander Degree of the Legion of Merit	4 July 2012 (U.S.)
	Commander 1st class of the Order of the Polar Star	18 January 2011 (Sweden)
	Commemorative Medal of the Minister of Defense of the Slovak Republic First Class	15 November 2011 (Slovakia)
	Order of the Red Star	(Soviet Union)
	Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
	Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"

Personal life

His main research interests include modern conflicts, conflicts involving small states/nations, development of national defence. Since 1999, he has 48 publications, among others 1 monograph, 3 academic papers published in international journals and 15 other academic papers.

In addition to the Estonian language, General Laaneots is fluent in English, Russian, Belarusian, and Finnish. He is an active member of the Estonian National Defence League and the Rotary Club. He is married to a Ukrainian-Moldovan woman named Natalia and has a son and a daughter (and four grandchildren).^[2]

References

^ "Uudised 99/03/25". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Антс Лаанеотс: у человека должны быть цель, амбиции и сила воли". Rus.Postimees.ee (in Russian). 9 December 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
^ Official Biography, http://www.nato.int/
^ Former Commander-in-Chief Ants Laaneots starts work as the Prime Ministers advisor (news in Estonian).
^ Laaneots left the position of Prime Ministers advisor (news in Estonian).
^ Generals Laaneots and Kert joined the Reform Party (news in Estonian).
^ "Riigikogu valimised 2015: Detailne hääletamistulemus". Vabariigi Valimiskomisjon. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
^ Klikushin, Mikhail (22 February 2016). "Estonia Wants More NATO Troops—But Only If They Aren't Black". The Observer. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
^ "38.Sõjaväeliste auastmete andmine". Office of the President. 19 June 1998. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
^ "45. Sõjaväeliste auastmete andmine". Office of the President. 18 February 2008. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
^ "150. A. Laaneotsale sõjaväelise auastme andmine". Office of the President. 16 June 2011. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
^ "EROK teeneteristi kavalerid". Eesti Reservohvitseride Kogu. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
^ "Jüriöö teenetemärgi kavalerid". Jöriöö Park. Retrieved 4 December 2015.

External links

Media related to Ants Laaneots at Wikimedia Commons

Military offices
Preceded by Aleksander Jaakson	Chief of the General Staff 1991-1994,1997-1999	Succeeded by Aarne Ermus
Preceded by Ants Kiviselg	Commandant of the Estonian National Defence College 2001-2006	Succeeded by Viljar Schiff
Preceded by Tarmo Kõuts	Commander of the Defence Forces 2006–2011	Succeeded by Riho Terras