Former president of Belarus: Lukashenko is Putin’s slaveFormer president of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich says that Russian can do whatever it wants in Belarus as President Alexander Lukashenko is dependent on Russia and is basically Vladimir Putin’s slave.Estonian news
Noot’s apology ends handshake scandalSaturday marked the 32nd Jõhvi people’s marathon. The 9-kilometer main distance was won by Kenyan Ibrahim Mukunga Wachira who has competed and won a number of competitions in Estonia in recent years. Mukunga Wachira is the training partner of Estonian marathoner Tiidrek Nurme.Sport
Court gives green light to Reidi roadTallinn Administrative Court decided not to satisfy a claim against Tallinn’s Reidi road project; greens to analyze ruling before deciding on future steps.Local News
Zapad AA drill a budget battleThe Belarusian defense ministry allowed accredited journalists to monitor an anti-air drill at the Domanovo training grounds on Tuesday.Estonian news
Spy who ensnared Kohver now in prisonThe man who helped trap Estonian Internal Security Service (KAPO) operative Eston Kohver in September of 2014 has been imprisoned in Estonia since February last, Buzzfeed reports.Estonian news
App to help IT professionals find better offersEstonia, like all Nordic countries, is in big trouble as all IT-proficient people have long since been recruited in a situation where satisfying clients’ needs requires increasingly substantial software development. Two options remain: to find new people from outside Estonia, or offer existing specialists better pay and working conditions.Estonian news
Khodorkovsky cannot imagine return of CrimeaRussian dissident and former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky believes that replacing President Vladimir Putin would change nothing in Russia, which is why an overhaul of the entire political system is needed – to make Russia a federation in more than just name.Local News
Anarchy rules at Kaagvere schoolIt is difficult to call what is happening at the Maarjamaa Educational College in Kaagvere anything other than anarchy – students trip the school’s fire alarm at least a few times every hour, opening all doors and allowing gangs of boys to scale the fence and proceed to vandalize and disturb the village, resorting to theft where possible.Local News
Coalition looking at sporadic minorityThe fall session of the Riigikogu that kicked off yesterday promises to be nerve-racking for those involved – in addition to what is now only a slim majority on the floor, ruling parties find themselves outnumbered in the foreign affairs and defense committees. Even though rules demand the coalition make changes to committee compositions soon, ruling parties must still settle for a minority in some. This also means fewer high-paying jobs.Local News
Estonia wants to make Google and Facebook payEstonia will make a proposal to end the tax freedom and competition distortion by technology giants, like Google and Facebook, on European markets at next week’s ECOFIN meeting in Tallinn, an EU presidency memo at Postimees’ disposal suggests.Economy
Real estate more profitable than railroadOne of Estonia’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Oleg Ossinovski, is about to take money he has used in the railroad business into real estate, hoping to earn more by building apartments in the center of Tallinn than he does in the declining Estonian railroad business.Local News
Ilves: our e-state and digital services are unique in the worldToomas Hendrik Ilves continues to be a speaker for the e-state as an ex-president. He has given more than 30 interviews and comments to the foreign press and participated in dozens of conferences from the USA to Japan on topics of the digital state, cybersecurity, and security policy in the past year alone.Opinion
ID-card tip from Czech scientistsPostimees’ sources suggest that the suspicion concerning the security of Estonian ID-cards comes from Czech scientists scheduled to publish their work in October.Local News
Reps would restrict high school attendanceMinister of Education and Research Mailis Reps (Center) proposed a grade average threshold for basic school graduates who want to attend high school yesterday. Those below the grade average would be forced to attend vocational school as the idea also prescribes mandatory school attendance until the person’s 18th birthday. Heads of some schools welcome Reps’ initiative, while others criticize it as strongly.Local News
Monitoring system of Estonia's eastern border has seen 5 failures in 6 monthsAccording to the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) the monitoring systems on Estonia's eastern border have partially stopped working on several occasions in the past six months, which directly points to the need to find additional funding for the maintenance of PPA's IT systems.Local News
Dutch portal: Baltics training children for war with RussiaDutch news portal De Correspondent has published an article where it is claimed Baltic countries use child soldiers and are constantly preparing for war with Russia.Local News
Lithuania is also accusing Italian journalist of asking to give guns to kidsItalian photojournalist Tomaso Clavarino who during his trip to Estonia tried to stage photos of Home Daughters holding weapons, had asked during his stay in Lithuania couple of weeks earlier that the kids who were at the first-aid training course would take on guns for the photo, says Lithuanian Ministry of Defence.Estonian news
Italian journalist's focus on Baltic children with guns surprised his helpersThe reason why Italian photojournalist Tomaso Clavarino decided to make a photo-story of children patrolling with guns and «the paramilitary organisations growing in the same vein as nationalism in the Baltic countries» was probably his genuine upset, says his Lithuanian contact person.Estonian news
Clavarino shocked by questions concerning sponsorsThe main accusation by De Correspondent and Tomaso Clavarino against Postimees newspaper is that upon the publication of two articles – one about Clavarino’s story and photos, the other with comments by the Estonian Ministry of Defence – Postimees did not immediately solicit Clavarino’s comments.Estonian news
Hackers could have made digital clonesIf the ID-card security risk Prime Minister Jüri Ratas turned into news yesterday would materialize, it would allow hackers willing to spend the money to create digital clones of Estonian residents.Local News
Shady sums greater than state budgetBoth the Moldovan money laundering device published in Postimees this spring and the Azerbaijani instrument published in Äripäev on Monday that form the greater Laundromat scheme have shed light on the dark side of Estonian banking. While transfers were made to all Estonian banks, the Estonian branch of Danske Bank stood out.Local News
Estonian ID card security risk calls into question security of e-electionsA security risk which has been identified with 750,000 Estonian ID cards issued after Oct. 16, 2014 calls into question the security of e-elections and the decision regarding whether e-elections will take place this fall or not must be made by the National Electoral Committee.Local News
Danske mediated bribes from AzerbaijanAccounts of the Estonian branch of Danske Bank made it possible to move millions of euros in bribes from Azerbaijan, an international investigative journalism project reveals.Local News
Eesti Gaas declares war on district heatingGas provider Eesti Gaas has turned to the justice chancellor to demand redrawing of Tallinn’s heating districts and abolition of regulation that obligates buildings in heating districts to switch from gas heating to Utilitas district heating after carrying out renovation work.Economy
Outlaws to be released from HarkuThis week will mark the release of two detainees of the Harku Detention Center, one of whom is an ex-convict, Estonia has not managed to expel.Local News
Video: father and son were hit by a trainA father and son were hit by a train in Kohila on Friday morning. The child escaped unharmed and the father with only minor injuries.Local News
Center to make exception for SavisaarThe council of the Center Party approved a statement yesterday, according to which members running against the party this fall cannot continue as such.Local News
Third warning led to closing of curriculaA part of students who applied in good faith to the Euroacademy this summer were in for an unpleasant surprise: longstanding shortcomings led to a ministerial directive that will take away the school’s right to teach two specialties.Local News
KGB man in Savisaar-Mõis election coalitionThe October local elections list of Savisaar’s Election Coalition and Active Tallinn includes former Soviet security officer Valeri Konovalov.Local News
More education equals a longer lifeA paper published in the British Medical Journal by a team led by Estonian scientist Taavi Tillmann shows that pursuing education directly reduces risk of heart attack.Local News
Free refuse collection would cost millionsAssessments by leading waste handlers Ragn Sells and Eesti Keskkonnateenused put the cost of free waste collection promised by the election coalition of Edgar Savisaar and Urmas Sõõrumaa in Tallinn in the same ballpark as that of the capital’s free public transport.Economy
Russia refers to Zapad as just an anti-terrorist drillPracticing an air and naval blockade near the Suwalki gap connecting the Baltics to their NATO allies is merely a part of an anti-terrorist drill, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin said when introducing the Zapad 2017 major training exercise yesterday.Local News
Successful family company to build plywood factoryTimber group Lemeks founded a subsidiary called Estonian Plywood in July. Nearly 10 hectares of industrial land has been bought in Viruvere, near Jõgeva to begin production of birch veneer and plywood.Economy
Laidvee wants Estonia to manage Rail BalticEstonian Railways, previously skeptical of Rail Baltic, is plotting a course for Europe under new CEO Erik Laidvee who recommends today’s high school students aim for specialties tied to the western-gauge railroad.Economy
Two people die in motorized deltaplane accidentTwo people died in a motorized deltaplane accident on Sunday in Estonia's Rapla County.Local News
A step into LatviaA survey ordered by Postimees and carried out by pollster Kantar Emor suggests nearly 30 percent of Estonians between the ages of 17 and 74 have been to Latvia to purchase alcohol or have had their acquaintances bring them some this year.Economy
Driverless buses traveled 1,300 km in month in TallinnSelf-driving buses, which in the framework of a pilot project carried passengers between Viru Square and the Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel) six days per week until Aug. 26, carried around 5,500 people and traveled 1,300 kilometers in a month.Local News
Savisaar and Mõis – Active Tallinn?From press conference to press conference: head of the 35-strong election coalition Active Tallinn Jüri Mõis and accused at trial Edgar Savisaar, as the leader of an election coalition of his own name, plan to keep the public in suspense for as long as possible.Local News
One must want citizenshipEconomist and former politician Tiit Made proposed abolishing so-called gray passports and giving stateless persons a year to decide what country’s citizenship they want at a meeting of the August 20th Club last Sunday. “In that time, people can either learn the language or opt for Russian citizenship […] or leave,” Made told the Aktuaalne kaamera news program.Local News
Pharmacists accuse Samost of biasThe Estonian Chamber of Dispensing Chemists and the Estonian Pharmacists’ Union accuse head of public broadcaster ERR’s news portal Anvar Samost of bias and representing the interests of a single chain of drugstores. Samost claims the accusations include elements of slander and constitute an attempt to put pressure on the media.Local News
NATO Afghanistan deliberations still in the futureNATO allies know little about new plans the USA has for Afghanistan, says Minister of Defense Jüri Luik (IRL).Local News
Nightclub fire to cover up double murderIt is one of the more complicated murder investigations of recent years, head of the Northern Police Prefecture’s criminal service Rait Pikaro admits. At the same time the Estonian press wrote about the arrest of head of the Kemerovo group Slava Gulevitš in Spain in connection with drug trafficking in August, Pikaro and his team were working on a double homicide of two of the group’s “brigadiers” in Estonia.Local News
Citizens against bigger migration quotaAn August poll suggests that 72 percent of Estonian citizens do not deem it necessary to increase the country’s immigration quota. The survey also found that 63 percent of people believe Estonia does not need labor from outside the EU.Local News
Simson: entrepreneurs too hung up on tax incentivesMinister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson (Center Party) says in an interview that Estonian entrepreneurs have over the years been brainwashed into thinking the Reform Party is the only force that represents their interests. Companies should realize that what is important is not tax incentives but a strong state and happy employees.Economy
Scientists working on AI in TartuTartu has become the home of an international high-level working group of scientists that can now, after four years of hard work, create artificial neural networks that function similarly to the human brain, as well as train and make them cooperate.Local News
Risky train car business given green lightEven though the supervisory board of state-owned rail infrastructure company EVR Cargo approved the company’s now infamous Russian railcar deal yesterday, chairman Neeme Jõgi emphasizes that the decision was conditional. He still finds the business to sport a high level of risk that will in the future be on Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson.Economy
Skatepark in campaign focusLocal government council elections will for the first time be open to 16- and 17-year-olds this October. They number around 24,000. This considerable number of new voters merits social media campaigns and promises of extreme sports parks, while not all politicians urge young people to vote.Local News
Mõis’ plan for Center’s voters shock to FTCTalks between election coalitions Free Tallinn Citizen (FTC) and Active Tallinn (AC) for cooperation in the upcoming local elections fell apart with a bang yesterday. Leading figures of FTC said they were shocked by the attitude of Jüri Mõis and other leading members of AC toward voters.Local News
ERR paid close to €15 million for soccer rightsChairman of the board of public broadcaster (ERR) Erik Roose and head of the sports desk Rivo Saarna gave explanations to the organization’s council yesterday regarding the Estonian Soccer Association’s donation and disclosed the total cost of the television rights obtained with its help.Local News
State allowed itself to be taken for a rideThe years in the making SKAIS2 information system of the Estonian Social Insurance Board has become a shameful example of foolishness and inept supervision on the highest national level made especially appalling by the post-factum sabre-rattling of ministers, deputy chancellors, and other officials.Economy
Katri Raik: Narva can only be changed from the insideThe local power in Narva has over the years learned to act in its own interests rather than those of citizens, claims mayoral candidate, Pro Patria Res Publica Union (IRL) member Katri Raik (49). This fall, Raik and 60 likeminded individuals want to end a quarter of a century of Center Party politicians’ hegemony in the city.Local News
We must accept we cannot repeat the previous century’s successFormer prime ministers of Finland and Estonia Alexander Stubb and Taavi Rõivas told Postimees about their terms in office when Europe temporarily lost its head as a result of Russia’s aggression. They also answered the question why former UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure at the Brexit referendum was a culmination of the past few decades.Local News
Dutch portal ignored the letter by Estonian MFADutch portal De Correspondent ignored the response Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent them as a reaction to Tomaso Clavarino's report about voluntary defence organisations in Baltic states.Estonian news
Video: European Universities Debating Championship in TallinnThe European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) is an annual tournament in which debating societies from universities across Europe compete. EUDC 2017 takes place from 13-20 August in Tallinn, with the main events held in Tallinn University of Technology and the final in Nordea concert hall. This is one of the biggest debating tournaments of the year. Tallinn EUDC will see 650 debaters and judges.Local News
US aircraft damaged as it practices landing on highwayAn A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft assigned to the 104th Fighter Squadron, Maryland Air National Guard, involved in training operations off Estonia's Jagala-Karavete highway on Thursday made contact with an object on the pre-coordinated training area at roughly 3:15 p.m, as a result of which the highway will remain closed until Friday morning.Local News
Latvian alcohol merchant: success was unexpectedHead of the Alko1000 chain Einar Visnapuu, who has spent nearly two years selling cheap alcohol on the border between Latvia and Estonia, said the company never expected the business to grow so big. That said, it might not last forever.Economy
Savisaar taken to hospital againThe trial of Edgar Savisaar had to be put on hold again yesterday afternoon when the former mayor said he was not feeling well. The judge called an ambulance that took the veteran politician to the hospital.Local News
Scientists overturn Meri’s 5,000 years hypothesisAn article published in the journal Current Biology in July confirms Estonians do not have a single original home in the Ural mountains from where people started moving westward to reach the shore of the Baltic Sea some 5,000 years ago.Local News
Estonia’s chance to seem biggerThere is one thing Estonian politicians and officials do not want to talk about in connection with the country’s EU presidency - the direct benefits of the position. One example of the latter is politicians’ so-called direct link to all important European capitals.Local News
Savisaar to hear ReiljanThe trial of Edgar Savisaar and his alleged accomplices continued, after a summer break of close to two months, with the prosecutor’s opening statement yesterday. State prosecutor Steven-Hristo Evestus said in summary that indiscriminately clinging to power finally led the Tallinn mayor to criminal patterns of behavior.Local News
Mikser counters Reinsalu's move for quick pointsThe government does not support the justice minister's opinion on what to do with the registered partnership act that comes two months too late. Minister of Justice Urmas Reinsalu (IRL) returned from holiday last week and communicated his ministry's opinion of draft legislation by the Conservative People's Party (EKRE) to repeal Estonia's registered partnership act. Despite an existing agreement, the minister could not resist an attempt to score some quick political points.Local News
An Estonian will work in Nike's head officeKristjan Luha, who has been connected with Nike for 20 years, is the concern's global vice-president for football since July 1. He and his wife Age will move in early September for the fifth time, so as to start working in Nike's head office.Economy
Price advance hits four-year highPrices of goods and services grew by 3.6 percent year-over-year last month, making for the steepest advance in four years. The figure is among the highest in Europe.Economy
Jeroen Bult: European Defence - difficult choices ahead for Estonia«President Donald Trump sent me here to say: we are with you. We stand with the people and nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and we always will.» Three relieved Baltic Presidents were standing behind U.S.Vice-President Pence, when he spoke these reassuring words on 31 July, on the second day of his visit to Tallinn.Opinion
Savisaar runs against Center Party to support it“I planted you. I brought you up and watered you. I made you bloom. And if I want...” said the actress Marika Vaarik, who played Edgar Savisaar in the eponymous production of NO Theater two and a half years ago. “…you will break me!” Helena Pruuli, playing the tearful Kadri Simson, ended the sentence.Local News
New integration head considers separation the biggest problemIrene Käosaar, who will take over heading the Integration Foundation in September, says that she does not like the Estonian-Russian issue being raised again in 2017 before the election.Estonian news
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