BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Rallies in defence of Russian schools under way in Estonia

Rallies in defence of Russian schools are being held in Estonia today. The meetings in Tallinn and Narva have been called by the Russian School of Estonia association.

The participants are protesting against the authorities’ decision to make Russian schools teach in Estonian.

This is in breach of the European Convention for the Protection of National Minority Rights, which authorizes the use of one’s native language, along with the official language, in compact settlement areas.

Russian-speakers account for some 25% of Estonia’s population. Most of them have been denied Estonian citizenship, are subjected to unfair labour practices and discriminated against in the social sphere.

Ekho Moskvy   

Soviet collapse or Germanic reform ?

The latest issue of Diplomaatia, the Estonian foreign-affairs journal, published to coincide with the annual Lennart Meri conference in Tallinn earlier this month, is filled with great insight on the European crisis. My contribution on the euro's turmoil appears in the next post. But I want to draw readers' attention to other articles that offer some good perspective.

Ivan Krastev, head of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, a Bulgarian think-tank, compares and contrasts the collapse of the Soviet Union with the woes of the European Union.

He warns European leaders:

The Soviet collapse teaches us that just because the economic costs of disintegration would be very high, this is not a reason for it not to happen. To believe that the EU cannot disintegrate simply because it would be too costly offers only weak reassurance that the Union will continue to be stable.

Paradoxically, the belief that the Union cannot disintegrate, backed by the economists and shared by Europe's political class, is one of the risks of disintegration. The last years of the Soviet Union are a classical manifestation of this dynamic. The perception that disintegration is 'unthinkable' could encourage policy makers to try to push dangerous policies under the assumption that 'nothing really bad can happen' in the long term, and foster the idea that anti-EU policies or rhetoric might even be helpful in the short term.

The Soviet collapse is the most powerful demonstration that the disintegration of the EU need not be the result of a victory of anti-EU forces over pro-EU forces. More likely, it will be the unintended consequence of the growing dysfunction of the system and the elites' misreading of the political dynamics in their own societies. Reflecting on the Soviet collapse, the eminent historian Stephen Kotkin is convinced that the real question to be asked is, "why the Soviet elite destroyed its own system?" The Soviet collapse is the best demonstration that the rise of anti-integration forces can be the outcome, rather than the cause of collapse.

Moscow City Duma to visit Tallinn

A delegation from the Moscow City Duma will be in Tallinn on Thursday.

Moscow and Tallinn representatives will sign supplementary declarations for cooperation at a ceremony at the Town Hall Square.

The Moscow delegation will then visit a Tallinn City Council meeting, the Russian cultural center and the Estonia Concert Hall, where they will watch the ballet "Modigliani – the cursed artist."

On Friday, the officials will visit the puppet museum and the Seaplane Harbor.

The delegation, led by Moscow City Duma speaker Vladimir Platonov, also includes the chairmen of the legal affairs committee, cultural affairs committee, and the competence and personnel committee.

The cooperation declaration will establish new areas of joint interest, including renovation of Soviet-era apartment buildings and improving ties between civic organizations. Areas of cooperation have also included student exchange programs, cultural activities and housing.

The first cooperation declaration between the cities of Tallinn and Moscow was signed in 1996 by Platonov, who still holds the same position.

Ott Tammik

Demographic trends squeeze pension system

TALLINN - At a sitting of the cabinet on May 10, the Estonian government reviewed a report from the Praxis Center for Policy Studies on the sustainability of the country’s social security system, reports LETA. The main emphasis in the report lays in the sustainability of the social security system in connection with the ageing of the population.
Praxis analyst and University of Tartu lecturer Andres Vork says the pension insurance system will lose money for many years to come, considering that the long-term equilibrium is vulnerable with an ageing population. Thus, it will be important to find suitable measures for preserving the balance of the pension insurance system. According to the analysis, the share of the elderly will increase and the percentage of working-age people will decline.

The projection is that the percentage of those 65 and over will almost double in the next 50 years (from 17 percent to 32 percent). The ratio of those over 65 to the number of working-age people will increase from 28 percent to 67 percent by 2060.

After reviewing the Praxis report, the government decided to instruct the Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia, to present to the government an analysis within one year as to how to make the pension insurance system more compatible with changes stemming from the demographic trends and to ensure that pensioners both today and tomorrow have a sense of security.

Praxis’ comprehensive report on the sustainability of the Estonian social insurance system was prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Estonian Health Insurance Fund, Estonian Unemployment Fund, the Estonian Insurance Association, Eesti Pank, the Confederation of Estonian Trade Unions and the Estonian Employers Confederation. The study was made possible with co-financing of the European Social Fund.

Did Estonian banks lend 1.25 billion kroons to Russian oligarch ?

Indrek Põder former official of KAPO who is being chared for large-scale bribery, has told prosecutors that one of world’s richest businessmen, a Russian oligarch Dmitri Rybolovlev, borrowed several years ago 1.25 billion kroons from Estonian banks to finance a transaction, writes Postimees.

Rybolovlev who at that time was owner of Uralkal, Russian giant fertilizer producer that has 12,500 employees and produces 11.5 million tons of fertilizers a year, had turned to Estonian financial advisers because he found it impossible to get a loan from Russia because of his political connections.

Põder said that the loan was being mediated by Oleg Smoli and Roman Loban who are known for representing non-resident customers of Swedbank and Sampo Pank.

 

Although Põder says that Swedbank did not provide the loan, he claims that the Russian businessman found the money in Estonia. Põder did not specify who was the lender.

Forbes: assets of 9 billion US dollars
In 2010 Rybolovlev himself sold his stake in Uralkal for 6.5 billion US dollars to Russian businessmen who were in better relations with the Kremlin.

The Forbes magazine has estimated that the Russian businessmen may be worth 9 billion US dollars. He owns the controlling share in Football Club AS Monaco and bought a mansion in Monaco for 300 million US dollars.

Estonia and Russia made a step ahead in parliamentary dialogue

Estonian Riigikogu foreign committee chairman Marko Mihkelson, who met on Wednesday in Tallinn with Russian Federation Council foreign committee chairman Mikhail Margelov, said that parliamentary dialogue at the committees level has been restored now, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

Mihkelson said that at the meeting with Margelov, it was agreed to restore parliamentary relations and organise a meeting of delegations of foreign committees next month in Pskov and South Estonia.

Yesterday Mihkelson had a meeting in Moscow with State Duma foreign committee chairman Aleksei Pushkov. It was agreed upon that the Russian State Duma foreign committee will visit Estonia in November this year, after a gap of several years.

Mayor of Nõmme enjoys fun in the sun at taxpayers’ money

Erki Korp, head of Nõmme city district government in Tallinn, turned his one-week religious seminar in Florida into a 16-day holiday trip that will cost the taxpayer more than a thousand euros.

Korp was visiting Destin, Florida to participate in Grace Lutheran Church’s “Developing Healthy Communities” seminar.

A connection between Nõmme and Destin was bridged about 12 years ago through the Nõmme Rahu Congregation.

Although the seminar in the town that has 12,000 residents was held from May 2 to 8, Korp left Tallinn on April 29 and will be returning today, May 14.

In addition to his air tickets of 652 euros, Korp will be collecting per diems for all 16 days, making the total cost of the trip at 1,164 euros.

“This trip gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about how your city works, and how we could try and do things in Nõmme,” Korp said in an interview to a local newspaper.

NATO to conduct mine clearing drills off Estonia coast

NATO will begin its Open Spirit 2012 mine clearing exercises in Estonia’s territorial waters on Monday, the country’s defense authorities said.

The annual drills will brings together 19 ships from ten countries, including nine NATO member states – Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the United States, and Canada. Sweden will also join the drills.

The exercises, aimed at discovering and defusing WWI and WWII-era mines, will run until May 25 in the Baltic Sea off Estonia’s coast.

Some 150,000 mines have been laid in the Baltic Sea during the two wars, including about 80,000 in the Gulf of Finland. Since 1994, some 700 mines and other explosive devises have been discovered off the coast of Estonia.

The Open Spirit drills have been held annually since 1997 in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania’s coastal waters.

Moscow slams Estonia over Russian journalist’s visa Annulment

The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized Estonian authorities who annulled a Shengen visa of Russian journalist Igor Korotchenko after he arrived in Tallinn last week to participate in a media conference, the ministry said on Friday.

“The usage of visa restrictions by the Estonian side against Russian journalists is inadmissible and will be taken into account while building relations with Estonian authorities,” the ministry said in a statement.

Korotchenko, a renowned Russian military journalist and the chairman of the Defense Ministry’s Public Council, was detained in a Tallinn airport on May 6 and deported from the country after his visa was annulled.

The journalist was supposed to speak at the conference about the Soviets’ role in defeating Nazi Germany during World War II and the danger of using Nazi symbols in politics.

Korotchenko however made his speech online on May 8, saying that the move by Tallinn was “an unfriendly signal” and “a clearly outlined political trick” giving a signal of Estonia's attitude toward Russia.

Moscow has been in controversy with Tallinn since 2007 after Estonian authorities relocated from central Tallinn a World War II war memorial, the Bronze Soldier, that was built at the site of several Soviet soldiers’ graves.

Parades in honor of Waffen-SS veterans, involving veterans from the Latvian Legion and the 20th Estonian SS Division and their supporters, are held annually in Latvia and Estonia. Russia has repeatedly criticized the Baltic States for allowing these parades to take place.

Russia's military threatens preemptive strike if NATO goes ahead with missile plan

MOSCOW - Russia's top military officer has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defence facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield. President Dmitry Medvedev said last year that Russia will retaliate militarily if it does not reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on the missile defence system. Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov went even further Thursday. "A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens," he said at an international conference attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.

Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukovalso warned on Thursday that talks between Moscow and Washington on the topic are "close to a dead end."

U.S. missile defence plans in Europe have been one of the touchiest subjects in U.S.-Russian relations for years.

Moscow rejects Washington's claim that the missile defence plan is solely to deal with any Iranian missile threat and has voiced fears it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent. Moscow has proposed running the missile shield jointly with NATO, but the alliance has rejected that proposal. Makarov's statement on Thursday doesn't seem to imply an immediate threat, but aims to put extra pressure on Washington to agree to Russia's demands. The two-day conference in Moscow is the last major Russia-U.S. meeting about military issues before a NATO summit in Chicago later this month. Russia has not yet said whether it will send top officials.

In a candid, lively exchange during a conference side session, officials talked about the high level of distrust remaining between the two sides.

Estonia court to consider EU treaty

TALLINN - An Estonian court is opening a hearing next week that is attempting to challenge the legality of the euro zone's permanent rescue fund, just months before the crisis-fighting mechanism is expected to come into force.

The Estonian Supreme court could take up to four months to issue a ruling on whether the treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism violates the country's constitution. But the verdict could set a precedent for other groups challenging the legality of the fund, which is meant to shore up the euro area's defences against the debt crisis.

The Estonian case comes at a time when lawmakers and grassroots groups elsewhere in the euro zone are pushing their courts to review whether the ESM treaty infringes constitutional rights by jeopardizing financial sovereignty. To enter into force in July as planned, the €700 billion bailout fund needs approval from members representing at least 90% of the total capital. Estonia's total commitment is just 0.19%, so Estonia alone—much like a similar burgeoning movement in Ireland—wouldn't be able to derail the ESM treaty.

Estonian Finance Minister Juergen Ligi said he expects the court to rule in favour of the treaty, adding that the government has no plan B, such as changing the constitution, and will be forced to opt out of the treaty should the ruling go against it. "I find this situation extremely sad and embarrassing," Mr. Ligi said in an interview. "Estonia is a small country built on international cooperation and the knowledge that it's impossible for us to rely only on ourselves." But Mr. Ligi said he worries about the potential ripple effect in other countries that an Estonian rejection of the ESM treaty might set off. "Showing such a bad example might trigger temptations among other countries' politicians to bail out as well," he said.

Estonia should ban buying of sex : Hanno Pevkur

Minister of Social Affairs Hanno Pevkur says Estonia should follow the Nordic example and outlaw purchase of sex.

The issue has resurfaced again after the opposition Social Democratic Party in April sought the government's opinion on their draft legislation banning purchase of sex from youths under 18 years of age.

Pevkur replied in a letter that although the idea has the support of his ministry, that in itself would not be a sufficient step.

"We hope that in the future, buying of sex will become fully banned in Estonia as it has in nearly all Nordic countries," he wrote.

"In that respect, the Violent Crime Reduction Plan 2011-2014 also foresees commissioning an analysis by 2013 of legalistic approaches to the purchase of sexual services."

During the last decade, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland have all criminalized buying of sexual services.

Erkki Sivonen

Le sommet de Yalta divise l’UE une fois de plus

Certains dirigeants européens participeront au sommet des pays d’Europe centrale prévu à Yalta, en Ukraine, les 11 et 12 mai prochains, mais d’autres non, a appris EurActiv. Comble de l’ironie, Yalta est le symbole de la division de l’Europe pendant la Guerre froide, depuis que MM. Roosevelt, Churchill et Staline s’y sont réunis en février 1945.

Au moins quatre pays européens devraient boycotter la réunion prévue sur les rives de la mer Noire. Les médias allemands ont annoncé le 26 avril que le nouveau président, Joachim Gauck, avait annulé sa visite en Ukraine ce mois-ci. M. Gauck s'est dit préoccupé par l'état de santé de la chef de l'opposition incarcérée, Ioulia Timochenko.

Les médias tchèques ont également fait savoir, le 30 avril, que le président, Vaclav Klaus, avait annulé sa visite pour les mêmes raisons. Les présidents slovène et autrichien, Danilo Turk et Heinz Fischer, auraient décidé de suivre cet exemple.

En février dernier, les autorités ukrainiennes auraient lancé des invitations aux chefs d'État des 20 pays suivants : l’Albanie, l'Autriche, le Bélarus, la Bosnie-Herzégovine, la Bulgarie, la Croatie, l'Estonie, la Hongrie, l'Italie, la Lettonie, la Lituanie, la Macédoine, la Moldavie, le Montenegro, la Pologne, la République tchèque, la Roumanie, la Serbie, la Slovaquie et la Slovénie.

"Bronze Soldier" riots not likely to occur again, says Marju Lauristin

It is unlikely that events similar to the Bronze Soldier riots, which shook the nation exactly five years ago, will ever occur in Estonia again, Marju Lauristin, professor of social communication at the University of Tartu said.

On April 26, 2007, the government ordered relocation of the statue of the Bronze Soldier – a symbol of the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany for the many in the Russian-speaking community – from its location in downtown Tallinn to a military cemetery. The move was initiated by the government and supported by a large part of the Estonian-speaking population who saw it as a brutal remainder of the Soviet power.

According to Lauristin, the integration reforms carried out in in Russian-language schools have over the last five years been so profound that their impact is already irreversible, canceling the likelihood of similar riots ever taking place in Estonia again.

Estonia’s Ligi is more worried about French vote

Estonian Finance Minister Juergen Ligi said he is more worried about promises by the leading contender in the French presidential race to re-negotiate the agreement to cut budget deficits in the euro area than the Greek elections next month.

“A U-turn on the fiscal pact as promised by some hopefully isn’t possible,” Ligi said in an interview with public broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhaaling today. “Election rhetoric shouldn’t yet be considered as actual policies, but it is worrying. The finance ministers are certainly following these events with pain.”

Socialist François Hollande, the winner of the first round of France’s presidential elections, said yesterday France won’t ratify the European agreement pushed by Germany to tighten budget rules if he’s elected. Hollande faces incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a runoff on May 6, the same day as general elections in Greece.

Estonia will delay its goal to return to a surplus budget by the year 2014 due to the European debt crisis, the country’s government said.

Ott Ummelas

Estonia needs backup plan for Euro defections : Ilves

Estonia, which adopted the euro at the start of last year, needs a “plan B” to weather defections from the single-currency region, President Toomas Ilves said.

“We must be honest with ourselves and the European Union in general,” Ilves said in a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen in Tallinn today. “We also need to be prepared for considerable future changes to the current euro area, where some of us will move on and others will remain.”

Estonia and Finland, “with their responsible and conservative fiscal policy, have repeatedly proven that they are among those that are making progress,” Ilves said in comments distributed by e-mail after the talks.

Estonia, whose public debt stood at 6 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2011, is among the three least risky euro states. Its five-year credit-default swaps closed at 110 basis points yesterday, behind Finland’s 76 basis points and Germany’s 87 basis points.

Ott Ummelas

Visiting Finnish PM meets president

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, who is currently visiting Estonia in preparation for President Sauli Niinistö's official visit to Tallinn on April 25, met with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves today.

"We both - Estonia and Finland - are more optimistic in believing that we can outpace the problems of the Eurozone than our laconic Nordic characters might suggest," said Ilves, adding that both countries are convinced that a responsible and disciplined Eurozone is the basis for a strong EU.

According to Ilves, both the European Financial Stability Facility and the Stability Mechanism boost the resilience of the Eurozone against potential crises.

During the meeting, the politicians discussed regional cooperation projects and topics regarding Rail Baltic, the high-speed railway line that is supposed to one day link the Baltic states with Western Europe.

Ingrid Teesalu

Open market will increase electricity price by 17% : Estonian Ministry

The Estonian finance ministry forecasts that opening the electricity market for competition will increase the price of electricity from new year by nearly 17% and its effect on general inflation is about 0.65%, LETA/Public Broadcasting reports.

"And the electric energy tariff will increase from January 1, 2013 by nearly 50%," the ministry's macro-economic policy department head Andrus Säälik said.

An electricity bill consists of four components: electric energy tariff, grid service, renewable energy fee and electricity excise tax. Electric energy tariff currently forms 33% of the electricity bill.

Säälik said that the increase of price of electricity for households and small companies that so far buy electricity from the closed market will be 16.8%, based on the gap between the average price of the electricity bourse's Estonian price region average and the price at the closed market.

Large consumers already buy electricity from the open market and are not directly affected by the next year.

The ministry thinks in its spring economic forecasts that inflation in Estonia will this year be 3.3% and next year 3%. "Thus despite the opening of the electricity market, inflation will not accelerate net year," said Säälik, adding that the reason for this is forecasts that oil prices will decrease in 2013.

Juhan Tere

Accused Estonian fraudster extradited to the US appears in federal court

An Estonian man has been extradited to New York to face charges he was part of a hacking gang that infected more than 4 million computers with malware as part of a massive click-fraud scheme.

Anton Ivanov is one of seven Estonian and Russian men charged in November with operating an international conspiracy that generated $14 million in phony revenue. He arrived in New York on Thursday afternoon and appeared in federal court in Manhattan for an arraignment hearing. Five other men charged in the operation are still being held in Estonia. One man accused of participating in the fraud ring remains at large.

The US Department of Justice accused the seven men of orchestrating a far-reaching botnet scam that infected both Windows and Mac computers with malware that replaced the IP addresses of legitimate sites with those controlled by the attackers. DNS Changer, as the malware was dubbed by researchers, caused compromised machines to rely on rogue DNS servers that caused victims to view websites they never would have seen on uninfected systems. The malware also prevented them from reaching antimalware sites, making it hard for them to disinfect their machines.

Language-labeled : Estonia brands inmates "Nazi-style" ?

A scandal is brewing in Estonia, where inmates are reportedly labeled according to how fluent they are in the national language. The practice is reminiscent of how Nazi Germany marked Jews, homosexuals and other categories of people in death camps.

Some Estonian inmates now bear the letters A, B or C on their clothes, representing the level of their language skills, says Director of the Institute of the Estonian Language Urmas Sutrop. Those barely able to communicate are labeled with “A”, “B” is reserved for those with average level, while fluent speakers are tagged with “C”.

Inmates who cannot speak Estonian at all are not marked in any way, Sutrop told the Postimees newspaper, citing a letter he had received from a prisoner.

The tags are an addition to the usual ID badges that inmates in Estonia have to wear.

“The inmate says this is very humiliating. I asked the Justice Ministry if it was true. They said it is. They said the initiative was sponsored by the inmates themselves. I asked the language inspection and they agreed with me that such labeling is wrong. They browsed through legislation and failed to find a law that would justify such actions,” he said.

Sutrop did not specify which Estonian prison labels people in that way. He stressed that the practice “is reminiscent of the Holocaust times, when Jews had a yellow Star of David attached to their chests. They branded Jews in Estonia this way from September 11, 1941.”