BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Nordecon to reconstruct Tallinn's Kivimurru Street on time

Estonia-based construction company Nordecon completed construction of a new rainwater sewer at Kivimurru Street in Tallinn. The street that had in the meantime been closed, got a new full-length covering and has been open to traffic for quite some time now. The total cost of the work was 1.31 million euros inclusive of VAT, informed LETA the company.

“Though the work looked like a typical utility line construction to bystanders, it was not among the simplest ones for the constructor in this site,” said Erkki Suurorg, member of Nordecon AS Management Board. “It was quite a challenge to install the sewer to a depth of 3.5 or 4 meters in these very cramped conditions, where the already functioning utility lines were running both in parallel and crosswise and the limestone layer was at a depth of half a meter here and there. The work was nevertheless finished on time and no compromises were made in terms of its quality.”

Erkki Suurorg says that he wants to thank the residents of Kivimurru Street and local businessmen for their patience and understanding, considering that the construction work and the closing for traffic caused inconvenience to them.

Border crossings from Russia doubled in a week

The long weekend of spring holidays in Russia almost doubled the number of border-crossings in Narva, creating long queues of cars waiting to cross into Estonia, writes ERR.

According to Aktuaalne Kaamera, incoming tourist flow from Russia across Narva border checkpoint has normalized, but it is likely to change when Russians start to leave home.

“We spent 10 minutes in the Russian side, but it took much longer in the Estonian side. It was the same thing last time,” says Aleksandr, adding that some people were forced to wait for ten hours before they were able to enter Estonia.

Kert Uustalu, head of the Narva road border checkpoint, said that it takes time to check the identity of Russians entering Estonia because they are non-EU citizens and, according to Schengen rules, must be subject to more comprehensive checking procedure.

Uustalu added that during such long holidays there are queues in all Russian border checkpoints with EU countries.

Toomas Hõbemägi

This week's weather: windy with some showers

The solid sunshine that much of Estonia has been experiencing in recent days is set to be pushed out by gusty winds and pockets of rain as a low-pressure system makes its way across Scandinavia on Monday night.

The first rain should hit the islands after midnight Tuesday and spread to the western mainland by morning, according to the Meteorology and Hydrology Institute. Sporadic rain and strong winds are expected during the day along with temperatures ranging from 6 to 11 C. After nightfall, the mercury should drop to 1 to 6 C.

Rain showers associated with the low-pressure front should continue to move across Estonia from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, but the chance of rain is slated to decrease during the day. Winds could be quite strong on the coasts, where temperatures are expected to be around 7 C. Daytime temperatures inland should be 10 to 12 C, lowering to the 2 to 6 C range at night.

Friends spark a revolution to change money

The business TransferWise began with a simple exchange of currency between two Estonians in London with contrasting needs.

Now, the firm is aiming to become a global business by disrupting the high-commission model on foreign exchange that has long benefited banks and specialists in the market.

Based in Shoreditch, east London, the company is the brainchild of Estonian nationals Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann, with its role model being Skype, the internet telecoms pioneer where Hinrikus was the first employee. “What we did at Skype was make the world smaller and let people communicate for free,” says Hinrikus, Skype’s former director of strategy.

“At TransferWise, we want to make the world smaller by letting people send money, which is currently costing them an arm and a leg. Financial services is one of the last industries that hasn’t been properly disrupted yet and that gives us a huge opportunity.”Hinrikus, 31, and Käärmann, 32, moved to London from Estonia six years ago, meeting up in Shoreditch’s small Estonian community. Käärmann, who worked for consultants Deloitte, was paid in pounds in London but had to service a mortgage and other monthly bills in Estonia in euros.

Estonia uses "Google Maps Street View" to catch tax cheats

As we've noted before, the information captured by Google's Street View has been put to some surprising uses, and the Boston Globe has come across a further fascinating example from Lithuania:

Sitting in the comfort of their own offices, inspectors used the free Internet program for a virtual cruise around the streets of some of the Baltic country's big cities, uncovering dozens of alleged tax violations involving housing construction and property sales.

They identified 100 homeowners and 30 construction companies as suspected tax dodgers thanks to Street View, finding homes where they shouldn't be and other suspicious activity, Darius Buta, a spokesman for the State Tax Inspectorate, said Wednesday.

Ars Technica points out that Estonia is doing the same. This might lead to demands for houses to be blurred, as can be requested in Germany. But the Boston Globe article notes that it's not just Street View that tax authorities are mining for clues about people not paying all their taxes:

In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service has said it would be cross-referencing information from taxpayers' Facebook and Twitter accounts if their returns threw up any red flags.

In Britain, tax officials have revealed they are using Web crawling software to trawl auction websites for undeclared sales.

Authorities in Greece have been using satellite imagery to locate undeclared swimming pools in wealthy neighborhoods.

The ability to draw on the massive stores of data that are now publicly available means that even seemingly trivial information, when cross-referenced with more of the same, can allow governments and others to create surprisingly detailed profiles of people that may have far from trivial consequences.

Nazi hunter criticizes Australia in report

The Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has criticised Australia and several other countries for failing to do enough to bring perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice.

The centre's 12th annual report on efforts to hunt down Nazis accuses a raft of nations of failing to prosecute or investigate alleged Nazis.

"The most disappointing result in a specific case during the period under review was the decision by the Australian High Court to reject the extradition request submitted by the Hungarian authorities for Karoly (Charles) Zentai, who was accused of the murder in November 1944 of 18-year-old Peter Balasz," it said.

The Los Angeles-based centre said Zentai allegedly killed the Jewish teenager "whom he caught on a tram without the yellow star required of all Jews," and took part in manhunts for other Jews in Budapest in 1944.

Only the United States scored an "A" on the report; Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Serbia each got a "B". At the bottom of the table it gave Australia, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Norway, Sweden and Syria "F" grades.

"Countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Ukraine consistently failed to hold any Holocaust perpetrators accountable, primarily due to a lack of the requisite political will," the report said. It added that Sweden and Norway "refuse to investigate, let alone prosecute, due to a statute of limitations."

Every other Estonian is overweight or obese

According to a study conducted by the National Institute for Health Development, 55 percent of men and 50 percent of women in Estonia are overweight or obese.

A total of 36 percent of men and 26 percent of women had a body mass index of 25 to 29.9, meeting the definition of "overweight," while 19 percent of both genders were obese (BMI of 30 and up).

Compared to the last study, from the start of the decade, the overweight proportion increased only among males aged 16-34, while obesity increased among older men and nearly all groups of women. The study was conducted in March and April 2012 and there were 2,969 respondents.

Among two noteworthy trends, between the ages of 25-34, only 5.9 percent of women are obese. The figure then jumps to 16.1 percent in the 35-44 age group. Meanwhile, the percentage of overweight men doubles as they go from their teens and early 20s to their mid 20s to late 30s.

Body mass index is a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters.

Disrepair of Tallinn streets worsens

The main reason why motorists and pedestrians in Tallinn find it increasingly difficult to move about in the winter without damaging their vehicles or harming themselves is that over the year Tallinn City Government has deliberately been allocating less money for repairing streets, writes Postimees.

While this year City of Tallinn plans to spend around 3.5% of the city’s annual budget on road repair and maintenance, the figure in 2012 was almost 4%.

In other words, the city will spend just EUR 15m on street repair this year, while last year’s figure was almost 17m.

While ten years ago the city repaired 160,000 sqm of streets a year, the figure is now down to 130,000 sqm.

Ain Valdmann, head of the municipal services department, admits that lack of funding is the main reason why the streets are in disrepair. He says that since there is not enough money to keep the streets clean from snow and ice during the winter, damages caused to streets and roads will increase, causing potholes.

Kasparov promotes chess education in Tallinn visit

Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion and political activist, gave a public lecture at Tallinn University on Wednesday, followed by a fundraising simul at a local café.

Kasparov visited Estonia a number of times last year, including for the Open Society Forum and a meeting of the Russian political opposition. Advocating for the incorporation of chess in K-12 education, Kasparov said Wednesday that a project introducing chess lessons in the curriculum of 12 Estonian schools last fall has been successful and will hopefully be expanded soon.

At the simultaneous exhibition, which was held as a fundraiser to support local chess programs, the grandmaster took on two Estonian MPs and the former head of Estonian Air's supervisory board, among others.

Earlier, at the lecture, Kasparov said finding the next Bobby Fischer was only a side effect of his initiative - the Kasparov Chess Foundation. The organization has brought chess to thousands of schools around the world, claiming that the game has all kinds of developmental benefits, including improving mathematics, creativity and self-esteem.

Perth people trafficking ring busted

Two young Estonian men were lured to Perth by the promise of work but when they arrived they allegedly were threatened, had their passports taken and were told they would have to work to pay off a debt.

Detective sergeant Ken Foster said the two men, who are in their 20s and not previously known to one another found, themselves in a difficult situation, being in a foreign country and with limited knowledge of English.

"They come from different parts of the world, their views of policing are somewhat different to what we understand here, they're frightened of that type of thing, they are also a long way from home, and threats were made against them, not only them but their families in Estonia," he said.

Four Estonian nationals living in Perth, who had organised for the two men to fly to Australia, are due to appear in court next month on a number of human trafficking related charges. The alleged traffickers had set up a website for a work hire company and interviewed the men online via Skype.

Welding jobs were organised for the two men who arrived in February last year on working holiday visas which they had applied for online. According to police, the men were told they would be given assistance to get 457 working visas. It is alleged that their passports were taken from them under the threat of violence and they were told they owed money to the men.

Pärnu County strangler sentenced to life

The man who killed and dismembered two women in Pärnu County has drawn a life sentence.

In a closed-door hearing on Wednesday, Pärnu County Court granted the sentence for Andres Võsu that had been sought by Lääne district prosecutor Anne Sillaots, uudised.err.ee reported.

The court said Võsu suffered from a sexual behavioral problem, but that it did not prevent him from facing trial or serving his punishment. The judge said Võsu was a high risk to commit future crimes, and that the life sentence was a necessary measure.

"Andres Võsu's behavior in disregard of the law has become the norm. He has been been convicted of crimes on six previous occasions, and that fact alone attests to his antisocial behavior. He finished serving his last punishment in full - five years - and was released in April 2011."

Võsu was also ordered to pay 2,457 euros to cover civil actions and fines and court costs totaling 27,526 euros.

He has seven days to appeal.

Võsu was convicted of beating and strangling a 55-year-old woman in an apartment in Audru in 2011. He dismembered her body and disposed of it in the area. In April 2012, he killed a 21-year-old woman. The M.O. was almost identical. There was also a robbery motive in that case.

He is a person of interest in the disappearance of a third woman. If his conviction and sentence stand, he would be one of 37 prisoners serving life sentences in Estonia.

Estonia to extradite Russian banker

Harju County Court today ruled to extradite Alexander Dmitriev, a banker who stands accused of embezzling millions in Russia.

Dmitriev is the former head of the Omsk branch of AK Bars Bank. He is wanted in Russia for the alleged embezzlement of 400 million rubles (9.8 million euros).

Authorities detained Dmitriev in Tallinn in January.

Harju County Court reviewed Russia's extradition request on January 22, but postponed a decision upon the defendant's request to obtain additional documents related to the case from Russia. In February, Tallinn District Court turned down Dmitriev's appeal of the arrest warrant.

"Unknown floating object" identified as wanted criminal

An unknown object spotted drifting across the Narva River yesterday evening from the Russian side was identified as a man recently declared a wanted criminal in Estonia.

Border guards at Narva-Jõesuu, where the river flows into the sea, caught the man, dressed in a wetsuit and flippers, twenty minutes after he was first noticed, reported uudised.err.ee.

The 28-year-old man was previously declared wanted for number of thefts by the Narva police.

The illegal border crossing attempt was added to his list of criminal offenses.

In Veerpalu doping case, Tartu researchers say WADA is wrong

Ahead of a decision Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to again postpone a ruling in the doping case of two-time Olympic gold medalist Andrus Veerpalu, a team of Estonian Ph.D.s disclosed the findings of a 1.5-year study which they said categorically shows that the World Anti-Doping Association's test is unreliable.

Furthermore, in a legal battle that is being called a precedent for the sports world, Tartu researchers say WADA has suspiciously flip-flopped in its explanation of its methodology and that its test is based on an unforgivably small number of human test subjects.

"Of course, there will always be some margin of error - even the WADA officials will not argue with that. But the question is how big that margin of error is in the given test. We believe that WADA's alleged low margin of error is utterly false. My clear message is that, in the course of this case, prohibited substances have not been found in Andrus Veerpalu's blood test," Sulev Kõks, a professor of physiology at the University of Tartu, told ERR radio.

The court did not give any explanation for the postponement on Thursday. Officials hypothesized that the delay may have been related to it being preoccupied with the current Skiing World Championships or needing to still gather more information on the Veerpalu case.

Tallinn wants to close pubs at 3 a.m.

TALLINN – The city of Tallinn is asking the government to make a law amendment that would allow the city to set restrictions on the opening hours of entertainment venues and thus curb the noisy nightlife of Tallinn's Old Town that lasts often till morning, Postimees writes.

Deputy mayor of the city Arvo Sarapuu said that the law amendment would benefit not just the residents of Tallinn's Old Town but residents of other towns too whom night-time party-goers don’t give any peace.

The central Tallinn governor Mihhail Korb said that all pubs in the Old Town should be closed by 3 a.m. at the latest. "Starting 3 a.m. the number of police calls in central Tallinn surges. Thus the commercial activities law should be changed and local municipalities should be given the right to restrict the opening hours of drinking venues," he said.

"Tallinn is becoming notorious as the paradise of British bachelors, a place of hard partying, which a town that belongs to the UNESCO world heritage list clearly doesn’t wish for," said Korb, adding that most pubs and clubs are open there till early hours or round the clock. "The situation has become intolerable for residents of the Old Town," he said, adding that it also harms business of other companies, like hotels, whose clients suffer because of the noise.

A Vintage submarine and icebreaker in Tallinn's seaplane harbour

Tallinn has been an important port and Estonia's connection with the world since before recorded history. Because of this, the city has not one, but two museums dedicated to the sea. The Maritime Museum is housed in Fat Margaret, an old cannon tower that once protected the harbor. It has the usual assortment of old photos and gear, along with a very cool exhibit on sunken ships.

The other museum is far more interactive. Housed in an old seaplane hanger dating to World War I, Tallinn's Seaplane Harbour Museum is filled with old ships and other maritime bric-a-brac.

Estonians seem to favor odd lighting in their museums. The Bastion Tunnels have a weird combination of red, yellow, and purple lights. At the Seaplane Harbor museum they seem to favor purple and blue. It gives the place a spooky under-the-sea feel.

Dominating the exhibit is the Lembit, a submarine built in 1936 by the English company Vickers and Armstrongs for the Estonian Navy. When Estonia fell to the Soviet Union in 1940 it was incorporated into the Red Banner Baltic Fleet of the Soviet Navy and saw action against the Axis powers. It managed to sink two ships and damage another.

Free travel is no paradise

On January 1, some residents of Tallinn saw one of their dreams come true, when they were granted the right to use public transport for free. However, not everyone is happy with the measure. For some, it appears to be a rushed move designed to win favour with voters ahead of autumn local elections.

Whenever they get a chance, Lithuanians like to say, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. However, the residents of Tallinn, who have been enjoying free public transport since January 1, now set more store by the American adage: “There's no such thing as a free lunch”.

Thea, a service sector worker, is delighted to be saving around €20 per month, which is the average cost of a monthly travel pass for a Tallinn resident. Having said that, she immediately adds that the new system also has its disadvantages. “The number of homeless people and drunks using public transport has increased. Before, they only took buses from the notorious Kopli neighbourhood, but today they are everywhere. Worse still, the buses are often jammed, and you have to wait for another one with a bit more room,” says the 22-year-old Estonian.

“People now have to pay for public car parks, which used to be free, and the most expensive parking zones have been extended. Some might say that these changes amount to sustainable development, but people have the impression that the city council has upped the rates, because it needs money to pay for the free public transport,” explains Andres Kasekamp, a professor at the University of Tartu.

Narva customs seize 125,000 contraband cigarettes

Last Saturday, Customs authorities at the Narva border discovered and seized 124,760 contraband cigarettes from two different vehicles driving within the same hour, Estonian national broadcasting corporation ERR said in a statement, writes LETA.

The first vehicle attempted to smuggle 76,120 cigarettes, and another vehicle carried 48,640 undeclared cigarettes.

Ants Kutti, acting head of the Customs Organization Department, said vehicles with purpose-built caches for contraband have been discovered more often in recent times.

As reported, an estimated 44 million euros of tobacco excise tax was not paid to Estonian state and 10.5 million euros was alcohol excise tax was missing due to illegal trade with these goods subject to paying excise tax.

Estonian Tax and Customs Board announced this year has intensified the control in customs checkpoints over tobacco products that people crossing the state border have with them.

TCB customs management department head Urmas Koidu said that reducing the share of illegal tobacco products has always been important for the board and this year it is one firm priority that will get more resources than before.

Thousands seek 50,000-euro jackpot in Estonia fishing test

AFP - Thousands took to the ice of a frozen lake in southern Estonia on Saturday in the hopes of catching the big one -- a marked fish worth a 50,000 euro jackpot.

Sadly it was the one that got away, despite the 6,500 people who tried their luck at the Estonian Gold Fish Festival on Lake Viljandi, organisers said. The annual festival saw 130 marked fish released into the lake a week earlier. To win the jackpot contestants had to catch at least 17 marked fish from three different types and the jackpot fish.

Nursing student Merike Maetaga, a 28-year-old from Tartu, came away the day's big winner by catching a marked fish worth 3,000 euros. "I came here just for fun and getting the biggest prize is a total surprise. I have been a fisherman since childhood when my dad started to take me to fishing," she told AFP.

Organisers said fishing is one of the most popular hobbies in Estonia, a small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people, and that nearly 8,000 people turned out for the festival, supported on the lake by a 30-centimetre (12-inch) layer of ice. "It is one of the biggest fishing competitions in world," judge Martin Meier said.

Where Tallinn's locals hang out during winter

From a series of 44 city blogs comes a small selection of locals' tips for the city of Tallinn. The city Tallinn is represented by three local gals -- Karina, Gea who Kristiina -- who share their favorite spots from around the city on the blog Spotted by Locals -- Tallinn.

So, where are the locals going in Tallinn when it's colder and there's a (high) chance of snow? They warm up with coffee or by playing outside. At Lauluväljak you can rent snowtubes by the half hour to slide down the slopes! Or in the Old Town, strap on some skates at Harju street ice rink.

If these active things are not up your alley and you want more than a coffee, then Harmoonikum, an eco-spa, might be more for you.

Bart van Poll