Postimees Digest, Thursday, June 6
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Reform Party evicts Ojuland and Samblik.
The board of the ruling Reform Party has evicted from its ranks MEP Kristiina Ojuland and Lääne-Viru County branch manager Taimi Samblik, following a corresponding recommendation from the party's court of honor after an in-house investigation into cases of vote-rigging found the two women guilty.
The third participant of what has now become knows as the rigging scandal, Lääne-Viru County governor Einar Vallbaum, was allowed to remain in the party's ranks as his guilt was not established. The party's investigative working group will continue to check all claims of potential vote fraud in other districts. Ojuland's departure cost the Reform Party its only seat in the European Parliament. Party chairman, PM Andrus Ansip told journalists after the board meeting that Kristiina Ojuland has seriously tarnished the reputation of the party by stealing the identities of other people and using them to improve her vote yield.
Security Police concludes residence permits investigation.
The Estonian Security Police Board (KAPO) has closed its investigation into whether crimes were committed as part of the residence permits scandal. Investigators took a fine-tooth comb to every one of the 136 people suspected of obtaining residence permits illegally but did not find any violations. KAPO concluded that while Russian businessmen did register multiple companies at a single address, it was not contrary to the Foreigners Act at the time and while it turned out that some entrepreneurs failed to realize business plans they initially presented to secure residence permits, there is not enough evidence to prove that they planned to file false information right from the start.
Rüütel: immigrants should not be discriminated based on the color of their skin.
Former President and honorary chairman of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) Arnold Rüütel said there is no justification for board member Martin Helme's recent utterance that decisions whether to allow immigrants to enter the country should be based on the color of their skin. Rüütel added that he believes Estonia's recent conservative immigration policy to be sensible even so. Helme phrased the foundations of the party's immigration policy using the term "if black, go back" last week.