Eesti in brief - 2005-11-30

  • 2005-11-30
Former President Lennart Meri (photo) accepted former Czech President Vaclav Havel's invitation to join a public letter by several ex-presidents to Russian President Vladimir Putin, voicing their concern over the state of human rights in Russia. "The signatories say that Russian authorities have started setting unacceptable restrictions to the media, citizens' associations and political parties, and that the authorities have failed in recognizing the independence of prosecutors and courts," said Meri, who checked out of the hospital this week. "I fully share the viewpoints of the letter's authors and regret that circumstances arising from my illness did not allow the initiators of this noble effort to get in touch with me sooner," the ex-president said.

Inga and Alexander Nedashkovsky, a married couple from Estonia, spent three nights at the Dubai airport since the border guard did not accept their passports 's issued to noncitizens 's as Estonian travel documents. The couple stayed at the Dubai Airport until the Estonian Citizenship and Migration Board sent a fax to certify that the gray alien's passport is an official document. A spokeswoman of the Citizenship and Migration Board said the problem could arise if the passport lacks a visa or little time remains until its date of expiry. "If the couple had no such problems, the local border guard simply made a mistake," she said.

Russian officials admitted that their hydrographic research vessels have been surveying the route of a planned underwater natural gas pipeline in the Estonian maritime economic zone without Tallinn's permission. The conflict broke out after a maritime surveillance radar in Estonia's Naissaar Island detected a research ship of the Russian Transport Ministry's hydrography department, the Pyotr Kotsov, making suspicious maneuvers in Estonian waters.

Representatives of the Center Party are in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, taking part in the congress of Russia's ruling party, United Russia. A spokesman for the Center Party said that board member Toomas Varek and adviser Andres Hiie were attending the congress. The Center Party signed a cooperation treaty with United Russia at the end of last year, which resulted in a deluge of criticism.

Representatives of the Russian consulate-general and the military history club Poisk (Search) reburied the remains of 62 Soviet soldiers killed in World War II. The remains of the soldiers were laid in their last resting place in a common grave. Only the remains of one Russian airman will not be buried, since archival work at his identification is in progress. It is not ruled out his relatives will be found and they might wish to bury the remains on native soil.