Eesti in brief - 2011-06-09

According to a new study, 10 percent of Tallinn’s Old Town belongs to foreigners, while the rest is divided equally between local private individuals, companies and the state/city, reports Postimees Online. Real estate firm Pindi Kinnisvara compiled a study on the Tallinn Old Town, commissioned by the Central Tallinn government, mapping all 597 buildings of the Old Town and analyzing ownership, usage purpose, residents, etc. According to the report, a tenth of the Old Town belongs to foreigners, and that includes private individuals and foreign owners of companies who own real estate in Old Town. “The rumors that Old Town has been sold to foreigners are not true,” said Pindi Kinnisvara board chairman Kalev Roosivali. Estonian citizens own 23 percent of real estate in the Old Town; 25 percent belongs to different companies. A third belongs to the public sector (15 percent to the city of Tallinn; 9 percent to the state; the rest to other public entities). The Old Town has 3,671 inhabitants, of whom 78 percent are Estonians. People of 43 nationalities live in the Old Town.

The Estonian Interior Ministry has completed a draft law that aims to motivate foreign citizens who are defendants or convicts to voluntarily leave Estonia and return to their country of origin, reports National Broadcasting. According to the draft law, a defendant or a convicted foreign citizen can conclude an agreement to leave Estonia. A condition of that agreement is also enforcement of a 10-year entrance ban.  If a person returns to Estonia before the expiration of the entrance ban, the part of punishment not served will be executed, the ministry said. Vaher said that the success of the foreigner leaving Estonia depends on their cooperation and a way has to be found to make them want to leave Estonia. As of May this year there were 247 detainees in Estonia with foreign citizenship, 196 of them Russian citizens, 17 Latvian, 12 Lithuanian and 6 Finnish citizens.