Eesti in brief - 2008-09-18

  • 2008-09-18
Demolitions experts from the Estonian Rescue Board have cleared three Georgian villages and one airfield of unexploded devices and have safely destroyed 11 aircraft bombs since arriving at the beginning of the month.The first task was to clean up the Marneuli airport, in southern Georgia, and the nearby villages of Tsereteli, Ahali Dioknisi and Vasiani.  The team is set to stay three weeks. The mission, organized in collaboration with the Estonian Foreign Ministry, cost about 300,000 kroons (19,200 euros) of the 10 million kroons the government has earmarked for Georgian aid.

The group for Russian-Estonian relations in the Russian Duma has failed to answer an invitation by the corresponding Estonian group to visit Estonia this autumn. Peeter Tulviste, who chairs the Estonian parliamentary group, sent an invitation in mid-May for a six-member delegation from the Russian group to pay a visit to Estonia.  The two committees have still had no personal contact.