Eesti in brief - 2008-06-11

  • 2008-06-11
Marina Kaljurand, the Estonian ambassador to Russia, pressed Russia's Parliament (the Duma) to encourage Russian-speaking residents of the Baltic countries to assimilate and apply for Estonian citizenship. "We think the State Duma could encourage them (persons of undefined citizenship) to become full-fledged citizens either by acquiring citizenship or by learning the Estonian language," the Estonian ambassador, was quoted by Russian news agency Interfax as saying at the Duma hearing on the subject of non-citizenship today.  The ambassador also complained about misrepresentation of the number of stateless people in Estonia. Kaljurand said statistics used by Russian lawmakers at the hearing were largely outdated, "Many figures and facts presented here today do not correspond to the truth," the diplomat said. Estonia has around 100,000 persons of undefined citizenship who make up 8 percent of the country's population.

A Chinese pilot smashed the runaway lamp on June 9 at Tallinn airport. The hold up led to delays at the airports as planes could not land.   Shortly before 8 p.m. the pilot of a Chinese Boeing 747-200 transport plane, which had reached the end of the runway and was supposed to make a 180-degree turn, miscalculated the curve and ran the aircraft over a runway lamp, the airport's chief safety inspector Tonu Mardo told Baltic News Service. The Boeing blocked the runway for half an hour or so during which time specialists ran a check on it. They detected no damage and the plane took off from Tallinn soon after. The runway was closed during the inspection of the plane and aircraft arriving from Vilnius, Riga and Helsinki had to wait for landing permission.