Eesti in brief - 2011-01-13

  • 2011-01-13

The Estonian foreign ministry asked the Russian ambassador to Estonia, Yuri Merzlyakov, to explain a decree that says Estonian citizens do not have the right to acquire land in the Pechory region of Russia anymore, reports National Broadcasting. “Since the full text of the document has not been made public, we have asked [the] Russian ambassador to come to the foreign ministry to explain more clearly what this is about,” the ministry’s press service said. According to the decree, citizens of foreign states and persons without citizenship cannot be owners of land in Russia’s border regions, including the territory of the Pechory region. In 1920-1940, Petchory was part of the Estonian Republic and, therefore, the birthplace of thousands of Estonians who used to live in the district are located there. The decree by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was signed on Jan. 9 and includes 380 such border areas in Russia.

Although trust towards courts is high among Estonians, over 60 percent of the population considers Estonian judges corrupt, shows a poll by Turu-uuringute, reports Postimees. Judges are generally considered to be educated (86 percent of the polled), just (63 percent) and trustworthy (55 percent), but 31 percent think that judges are corrupt. As compared to 2007, the negative image among judges has increased. The Supreme Court head, Mart Rask, said that the fact that three judges have been convicted in a short period of time for corruption is very shameful for other judges, too. Estonians are not particularly well-informed of the work of the court system. Among law enforcement institutions, police are the best known, as 63 percent said they were well informed of their activities. 27 percent said the same about the Legal Chancellor, 26 percent said this about the Supreme Court, 22 percent about county courts, 18 percent about district and administrative courts.

Estonian grocery store chains confirm that in the first week of the year, several times more sugar was bought than usual in fear of increases in prices, and some shops had to enforce sales restrictions, writes Postimees. Sugar sales surged at the beginning of last week when rumors started spreading of an imminent increase of sugar prices. In the Rimi chain, sugar sales surged by a third and posted records during the week. Maxima chain’s PR manager Erkki Erilaid said that in the first nine days of the year, over 200 tons of sugar were sold, the amount that the chain intended to sell during the whole of January. Prisma chain’s PR manager Kadri Lainas said that wholesale firms had set limits to how much sugar they would provide. Lainas said that the situation is paradoxical since the faster people buy all the sugar in fear of price increases, the faster its price will increase.

Thirty-three cases of individuals applying for asylum in Estonia were recorded in 2010, which is less than the year before, reports National Broadcasting. Three were repeat applications. The main source countries were Afghanistan, Russia, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, Police and Border Guard Board spokeswoman Ene Vihtla said. 17 positive decisions were made: according to the international protection law, 5 Afghani, 3 Sri Lankan, 1 Sudanese, 1 Tadzhikistan’s and 1 Belarusian citizen were granted asylum. Additional protection was granted to 3 Afghani and 3 Russian citizens. In 2009, 40 asylum applications were received and 4 positive decisions were made. In 2008, 14 applications were submitted and 4 were satisfied.