BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

The mysterious and beautiful city of Tallinn

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is a different and interesting place with its beautiful architecture that depicts old European style. Its streets, orange-colored roofs, churches and hills collectively make it a place that is worth visiting. The city was mostly safe in the Second World War and is still present in the same old layout. The buildings are old and weak now, but still present a wonderful view.

The city has a beach that adds to its beauty and charm. It has been a place for the elite in the past. Peter, the Great, from Russia, got his sophisticated palace built in the city; the palace is still there with its full glory. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens and gives an impression of the Imperial Russia.

The city is full of mysteries. It has a network of underground tunnels and there are remains of an ancient city that is visible beneath the streets. The details and history of the ruins is unknown. The people who might know about the history were either killed during the Second World War or moved to other places in the war time and never returned, so the city still remains a mystery.

The city has a transport system primarily based on roads. Trains are not common and therefore people travel very rarely from one city to the other in Estonia. Very few international flights land in the city per day. Travelling by a ferry through Baltic Sea is more commonly used mode of transport by the visitors from Helsinki, Finland. The accommodation is also quite reasonable as compared to other European cities.

Estonia lives the European dream, or the Greek tragedy

The Estonians, with little debt, an enthusiastic attitude toward Europe and a stoic approach to austerity measures, are a model EU nation in the midst of a crisis. They live in a digital republic defined by a business-friendly atmosphere and government transparency, an image that is attracting European expats.

When a Greek leaves a sunny country filled with olive trees, magnificent beaches and warm sea foam, when he leaves a place where summer lasts for seven months and moves to a country where he is held captive by a seemingly endless winter, it's bound to raise a few questions. Some relate to the country he has left, but his new home raises even more questions. And there is one question that affects both countries: Why is the one society driving people away, while the other draws them in?

Loukas Nakosmatis, a friendly, stout Greek with a three-day beard, the chef and owner of "Artemis," answers this question with an entire story, his own war of the roses. The 46-year-old began developing his business four years ago while he was living in Athens, he says. It involved importing flowers from the Netherlands -- mostly roses, tulips and a few exotic varieties -- on overnight cargo flights. He intended to sell them in Athens, a dusty city of stone walls and buildings whose residents are desperate for green plants and fresh flowers.

Nakosmatis signed contracts and statements of intent with three or four dozen flower shops that wanted to buy his flowers. The profit margin for flowers is large, says Nakosmatis, a factor of 10 or even 20 percent, and it would have been enough money for everyone, including the retailers and him as an importer. It sounded like a brilliant plan, at least on paper.

Sarkozy backs down on ECB crisis role

BRUSSELS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed down on Sunday in the face of implacable German opposition to demands to use unlimited European Central Bank funds to fight the euro zone's deepening sovereign debt crisis.

European Union leaders wrangled for hours over procedure and made little apparent progress in forging a strategy to overcome the crisis despite pressure from international partners and financial markets for decisive action.

Sarkozy acknowledged that France's proposal to multiply the firepower of the euro zone's rescue fund by turning it into a bank and letting it borrow from the ECB was doomed for now because neither Germany nor the central bank would agree to it.

"No solution is viable if it doesn't have the support of all the European institutions," the French leader told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said only two options remained on the table for leveraging the 440 billion euro ($600 billion) rescue fund, and neither involved drawing on the central bank.

Euro zone officials said the solution was likely to be a mixture of using the European Financial Stability Facility to provide partial guarantees to buyers of new Italian and Spanish bonds and creating a special purpose vehicle with the IMF to attract funds from major emerging countries such as China.

In the only tangible sign of progress on Sunday, leaders said they endorsed a broad framework drafted by their finance ministers for recapitalising European banks to cope with likely losses on Greek and other euro zone sovereign bonds.

But much time was spent on procedural squabbles with non-euro members Britain and Poland demanding that all 27 EU states, including the 10 that are not in the single currency, be fully involved in the crisis response. That forced the calling of another full EU summit for Wednesday evening.

With alarm growing in Washington, Beijing and other capitals about potential damage to the global economy, leaders effectively have four days to work out a comprehensive strategy to halt the crisis that began two years ago in Greece.

Carmen Kass : Elle - Russia - November 2011

Santiago Esteban

Cibulkova wins maiden title after epic final

Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova won the first WTA title of her career as she beat Estonia's Kaia Kanepi in an epic Kremlin Cup final in Moscow.

Cibulkova lost the opening set to Kanepi, but dominated the second set tie-break before an astonishing third set that was decided when Cibulkova broke at 5-5 before serving out a 3-6, 7-6(1), 7-5 victory.

The victory ended the wait for the world number 20, who lost in the final of WTA Linz last week to Petra Kvitova.

Cibulkova had looked on course to win the third set after being broken to love while serving at 4-3 up, but in the end the match came down to a few crucial points and it was the Estonian world number 43 who blinked first.

Apple expands iPhone 4S pre-order sales to 22 more countries

Apple Inc. this week expanded pre-order sales for the iPhone 4S to 22 additional countries.

Pre-order sales are now available in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The iPhone 4S was released to the U.S., U.K., Japan, Canada, France and Germany Oct. 14.

Apple in Oct. said it sold 4 million iPhone 4S units in the first three days of launch.

Pre-order sales for the iPhone 4S topped 1 million units in the first 24 hours of pre-order sales. The figure surpasses the prior record of 600,000 units sold in one day made by the iPhone 4. In addition, AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel Corp. sold out of initial pre-order stock for the iPhone 4S days prior to launch.

Apple this week reported it sold 17.07 million iPhones in Q4, below the 20 million units estimated by analysts, which concluded buyers held out for the release of the iPhone 4S.

Mothers who walk out – the last taboo ?

Rebecca Bunting is excited about the weekend. She's flying from London to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where a little boy will be waiting to greet her at the airport.

'It's his fourth birthday,' she says, smiling. 'I haven't seen him for three months and I can't wait to see how much he's grown, how much he's learnt.'

From the way she's talking you'd imagine Rebecca is going to visit a nephew or a friend's child. Instead, this tall, attractive 28-year-old from London is going to spend a long weekend with her son, a son whom she left two years ago when she walked away from him and her husband, and with whom she has no plans to live permanently again.

'He has a very good father and grandmother. I feel he's better off living with them than with me,' she says calmly. 'If my instinct was otherwise he'd be with me, but I just can't be sure that that would work.'

Drinking green tea in the bar of a London hotel, Rebecca comes across as a confident and focused young woman. An English teacher, she now lives in Brighton and when we meet she's just been shopping for a dress to wear on a theatre outing.

Yet public perception of women like Rebecca, who have chosen to live away from their children, is that they are at some level inadequate. In a society where maternal love is revered, anyone who fails to put their children before herself is seen as unnatural. Whispers follow: 'What's wrong with her? I could never do that.'

Sarah Hart is the co-chairwoman of Match, a charity for mothers who don't live with their children, and author of A Mother Apart, a book for the 200,000 or so British women estimated to be in this situation. She says that there is still a huge discrepancy in how we view mothers not living with their children, as opposed to fathers.

Russian soft power in the 21st Century : An examination of Russian compatriot policy in Estonia

REMINDER You are cordially invited to a discussion with: Ambassador Marina Kaljurand Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the United States on "Russian Soft Power in the 21st Century: An Examination of Russian Compatriot Policy in Estonia" Thursday, October 27, 2011 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm CSIS 1800 K St. NW, Washington, DC 20006 B1 Conference Room Please join us for a discussion with Ambassador Marina Kaljurand, Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the United States.  The discussion will focus on the recent CSIS report entitled "Russian Soft Power in the 21st Century: An Examination of Russian Compatriot Policy in Estonia," written by Heather Conley and Dr. Theodore Gerber.  As the former Estonian Ambassador to Moscow from 2005 to 2008, Ambassador Kaljurand will share her thoughts and insights on the impact of Russian soft power in Estonia.  If you have not already, please RSVP to The Europe Program at europeprogram@csis.org or (202) 775-3184 if you plan to attend. The event will be on the record.

 

First social workers get keys to electric cars

Stenbock House – Minister of Social Affairs Hanno Pevkur handed over the keys to electric cars to five Tallinn social workers who will become the first to be able to use the Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars for their job.

It is planned to provide a total of 507 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs to municipalities and social workers at AS Hoolekandeteenused. The cars are specially customized for cold climates. In the first application round, the Ministry of Social Affairs received applications for 379 electric cars, while additional applications are expected from local governments for the remaining 128 cars.

“In the first round, all municipalities that put in an application received the desired number of cars,” said Merle Ploompuu, project manager with the finance and property management department of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

“A number of local governments initially expressed the desire for only one car, adding that they plan to take part in the second application round as well. We believe that all 507 cars will have found a user by spring.”

The first 50 Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars will be in users’ hands this year already, while the remaining 457 will arrive next spring and summer.

33 Russian companies registered to a subsidized apartment in Tallinn

No less than 33 companies owned by Russian businessmen are registered to the address of one subsidised apartment in Tallinn that is home to an 81-year-old lady.

Most of the companies in question were registered only this year. In May, 16 companies were registered to the address and 6 were incorporated in September.

All companies registered to the address have “legal services” as their area of activity and have the same contact telephone in Russia and the same e-mail address.

“This is my grandchild who is handling this business,” says the lady, explaining that the grandchild by the name of Kirill Ozhigin has a temporary residence permit for Estonia and is shuffling between Estonia and Russia.

According to authorities, many Russian businessmen have registered their companies in Estonia in the hope that this makes it easier for them to obtain an Estonian residence permit.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Minister refuses Tallinn's plea for sale of historic building

The Ministry of the Environment barred Tallinn City Government from selling a building in Old Town's Town Hall Square.

The City of Tallinn said it would use the proceeds from selling three Old Town buildings to pay for a new square on the waterfront by the Linnahall convention center, reported Eesti Päevaleht.

After consulting with the National Heritage Board, however, Minister of the Environment Keit Pentus rejected the sale of one of the buildings. The Reform Party has suspected that Tallinn needs the revenue not so much for the building of the new town hall, but to cover current expenses.

The National Heritage Board has also voiced concern over the sale of the buildings to private owners because of their historical value.

In 2009, the Danish architecture bureau Bjarke IngelsGroup won the design contest for the planned new town hall. The design was applauded in an international architecture contest earlier this year. Construction of the hall, which would house the city government and most of the city's agencies, has been delayed for years.

Ott Tammik

To fill its budget, the Tallinn City Government is preparing a large-scale sale of municipal property, writes Eesti Ekspress weekly.

The list of building that would be put on sale includes also the building that houses the Department of Cultural Values on the Town Hall Square.

Critics say that if the plan succeeds, the City will have no control over the owners of Town Hall buildings and most cafes, studios and gallery would be turned into nightclubs, striptease joints and casinos aimed at serving tourists.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Ansip counters rumors of EFSF increase

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has rejected press reports that the guarantee commitment level of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will be raised to 2 trillion euros.

“I read in Äripäev that they plan to raise the EFSF level to 2 trillion euros, which for Estonia would mean we would have to raise our guarantees to 10 billion euros, however this will not happen,” Ansip said at the weekly government press conference on October 20.

Parliament voted on September 29 to participate in a Eurozone-wide expansion of EFSF guarantees, which can be used to help out financially-troubled Eurozone members. Estonia's commitment amounts to just under 2 billion euros of the now 780-billion-euro total.

The Äripäev article, published the day prior to Ansip's remarks, was based on stories that appeared in The Guardian and Financial Times Deutschland.

Ansip said that Estonia has clearly spelled out its position that it doesn't agree with any further increase in guarantees.

“I'm quite convinced that the willingness of most Eurozone members to supply additional guarantees has by now run out. Nobody should incite rumors about how our guarantee of 2 billion will become a 10-billion one,” he said.

Steve Roman

Aviation authority criticizes Estonian Air over safety

In March, Estonia's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) harshly criticized national carrier Estonian Air over flight safety after two potenitally dangerous incidents occurred early in the year.

The first took place in January when the airline's Boeing ES-ABL was forced to make an emergency landing due to the halt of its right engine. The second was in February when flames shot out of the same engine prior to takeoff, wrote Eesti Ekspress.

The CAA reacted by issuing an injunction in which its Director General, Koit Kaskel, said that the carrier’s board "excessively interferes with aircraft and flight operations without adequate information or knowledge," and that "saving money is often done at the expense of safety."

Information about the events came to light only recently as the CAA typically refrains from publicizing information about potentially hazardous incidents that occur in the country’s airspace.

According to the institution, the injunction was not publicly disclosed because Estonia is too small a country for such transparency and incidents of that nature might damage the interests of airlines. This situation can in turn allow airlines to refrain from reporting their mishaps to the public.

Ingrid Teesalu

District heating costs soar by 40% in parts of Tallinn

The heating company Fortum Termest cleared a 40 percent price rise with the Competition Authority for several parts of Tallinn, including downtown, Pirita and northern Tallinn.

The highest rate will be in Laagri, where district heating will cost 66.88 euros per megawatt hour.

Tallinn's city-owned heating company charges the same rate - which is higher than Fortum's average - throughout town. In November, the city heating utility will also bump prices up from 57.51 euros per megawatt hour to 59.73 euros.

In a statement from Fortum, the company attributed rising consumer prices to the increasing cost of electricity, firewood and gas in recent years.

Fortum relies mostly on gas, the cost of which changes monthly depending on the value of the dollar and other factors. In two years, the cost of gas has doubled, the company's statement said.

Ott Tammik

St. Petersburg to pay 10,000-Euro compensation to ice injury victim

A court in Russia ruled St. Petersburg must pay 10,000 euros in damages to Milana Kashtanova, the young Estonian woman who last year was hit by a chunk of ice from a roof of a building, leaving her with a brain injury.

The claim was made by Vadim Kashtanov, the father of the victim, and satisfied by the Petrograd District Court in St. Petersburg on October 18. The money will be transferred to a clinic in Germany to which the family owes around 100,000 euros, for the treatment of Kashtanova before she was brought to the Tartu University Hospital. Kashtanov is planning to file two more claims against St. Petersburg. 

A separate hearing in which the mother of the victim is seeking compensation for 61,000 euros was also supposed to be taking place on October 18, but was postponed to early November.

Kashtanova emerged from an eight-month-long coma but is currently facing a setback as she has developed osteoporosis and has a fractured shoulder. Physical therapy procedures have been put on hold until her shoulder improves. 

Ingrid Teesalu

Eesti in brief : 20th October 2011

A public poll by Turu-uuringute indicated that 58 percent of Estonian people do not support Estonia’s participation in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), reports Postimees Online. Opposition to it is equal among Estonians and non-Estonians, 57 and 59 percent, respectively. Twenty-eight percent were for joining the EFSF and 14 percent were unable to state their opinion, said political activist Anti Poolamets, who commissioned the poll, adding that, obviously, the Riigikogu made the decision to join the facility too hastily. The poll also inquired about the attitude towards the euro. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said that they would not support the euro if Estonia had to make the decision to join it now. Thirty-seven percent would still be for the euro. Thirty-one percent of the polled said that the euro has done more harm than good to Estonia; forty-six percent think the euro has done both good and harm, and 17 percent were convinced that euro has done more good than harm. 998 people were polled.

Around two hundred people convened for a demonstration called “Occupy Tallinn” at Tallinn’s Vabaduse Square on Oct. 15 to protest against the rule of banks and decisions of state leaders. This went on alongside with thousands of other people around the world who attended similar demonstrations at the same time, reports Postimees. The demonstration in Tallinn was a peaceful one. One of the initiators, Peeter Proos, explained that one of the aims of the action, that protested against supporting debt-ridden Greece, the decisions of Estonian politicians and the rule of banks, is to “distribute information to people about who, and how, manages our state. The other aim is to let people know how to start acting themselves.” “People have to start speaking up in politics, otherwise, there is no point in criticizing,” he said. In 82 countries around the world, in 950 cities, similar demonstrations took place.

According to the unemployment insurance fund, the number of registered unemployed continues to decline, but the rate of improvement is slowing down, reports bbn.ee. Last week, the number fell by 19 people, which is the lowest count for a long time. In comparison, during the summer months, the number of registered unemployed was falling between 600 and 900 people per week. 1,590 new people were registered as unemployed during the week. Of them, 162 had been made redundant by their employers. A representative of the unemployment insurance fund said that it is only expected that because of seasonal reasons, registered unemployment is not falling as quickly any more. “Seasonal summer jobs are now over and the unemployed have become more active,” said the rep. All in all, the unemployment insurance fund has 46,503 people on its list, which represents 7.2 percent of the total employable population. The fund is advertising 5,929 vacancies in Estonia and 700 abroad.

Tallinn launches ad campaign in Moscow and St Petersburg

The City of Tallinn launched this week a winter tourism campaign in Moscow and St Petersburg that welcomes Russians to visit fairytale Tallinn.

Ten years of consistent tourism marketing work has increased the number of Russian tourists visiting Tallinn by more than five times and thus, Tallinn is catching up to its main competitor Helsinki in regard to overnight stays of Russian tourists.

The number of Russian tourists visiting Tallinn, as well as Helsinki, is biggest at the end of the year. In the past five years, the number of overnight stays of Russian tourists has increased much faster in Tallinn than in Helsinki and last New Year’s more Russian tourists stayed in Tallinn than in Helsinki.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonians snap up Tallinn tickets

They are getting a dose of football fever in the Baltics as Estonia's Euro 2012 qualifier against Ireland in Tallinn next month sold out within a matter of hours yesterday.

And that's bad news for Ireland supporters as they will have to make do with their official allocation of 1,400 tickets for the November 10 clash in Tallinn, with no chance of unsold tickets being sent on to Dublin for sale to Irish fans.

The Estonian FA put tickets -- priced at between €12 and €16 -- on sale at 9.0am yesterday, but within two hours the game was a sell-out.

The Estonians had checks in place to stop cheeky Irish fans buying tickets for the home section of the ground online, as tickets could not be bought with a credit card, only with an Estonian-issued debit card and then sent to an address in Estonia.

Of course, touts the world over manage to get their hands on tickets and with more than 1,400 Ireland fans eager to travel, Irish fans will no doubt be offered tickets soon, but as of this morning the only tickets on sale on eBay were for the home game in Dublin.

The sell-out is a surprise as Estonians have been slow to warm to their football team: the 14,000 capacity Le Coq Arena was not full for any of their qualifiers, with just 5,185 punters paying in to see the 1-1 draw at home to Serbia last March.

Their average home crowd during the qualifying campaign was 6,700.

Aidan Fitzmaurice

Orderbook of Estonia’s No. 1 exporter is shrinking!

Ericsson, Estonia’s largest exporter, is suffering from lack of orders and could be forced to downsize, say sources.

The claim that Ericsson was not doing well in Estonia was confirmed by three different sources which preferred to remain anonymous. One of them said that by the worst scenario, the company could be forced to lay off up to a third of its 1,400 employees in Estonia.

Seth Gustav Lackmann, sales manager for Ericsson Eesti and member of the management board, said in comment that the company was going through a quiet period and that nothing can be said before the company publishes its quarterly report.

“These are rumours and I am not commenting them,” said Lackmann about the claims that the company was planning to downsize. Jonas Ygeby who manages the Ericsson Eesti plant also had no comment.

One indication that the company may be preparing for leaner times is that it has shown no interest in the Elcoteq Tallinn plant which is looking for a buyer after the Finnish parent company declared itself bankrupt last week.

Estonian minister of economic affairs Juhan Parts dismissed speculation that the future of manufacturers of telecommunications equipment was bleak. “If you look around, it is no longer people but things that are connected. These companies should be working flat out. If there are some problems, it is best that the companies themselves comment them,” said Parts.

Toomas Hõbemägi

Estonia enters IEA accession talks

Minister of Economic Affairs Juhan Parts began negotiations on October 18 for Estonia's accession to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The talks, held in Paris in conjunction with the IEA's biannual ministerial meeting, are the latest in a long line of steps Estonia has taken to join the energy security organization, uudised.err.ee reported.

“Energy security is of particular importance for Estonia and here we can take advantage of the IEA's many years of experience,” Parts said before the start of negotiations.

The IEA is an autonomous agency founded by the OECD, in response to the world's first major oil crisis in 1973-74, to help countries co-ordinate a joint response to major disruptions in oil supply.

Membership in the IEA is currently limited to OECD member states, of which Estonia is one of only six that are not yet members. The national energy sector's development strategy up to 2020 also includes a roadmap for adopting IEA policy rules, which was one of the prerequisites of beginning the accession process.

Steve Roman