Baltic Timeline

Ten years ago

A deteriorating economy and rising unemployment are fueling discontent among the predominately Russian population of Estonia's eastern border regions. On Sept. 15, about 800 residents in the city of Narva held a meeting to discuss the independence of the border city, or at least economic sovereignty.

Estonia is gearing up for its first and possibly last popular presidential election. In the country's first free elections since the 1930s, all of Estonian citizens will elect members of the Parliament and the president. The only president elected in the prewar period - Konstantin Pats - was elected by Parliament. The recently-adopted constitution declares that the Parliament will pick the president in the future. The favorite in this year's race is former Chairman of the Supreme Council Arnold Ruutel. Another candidate is intellectual Lennart Meri.

Sweden's King Karl Gustav XVI and Queen Sylvia tours Riga Sept. 9-11. The Swedish king followed in the footsteps of his father, Gustav V, who visited Latvia in 1929.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minis-ter Vitaly Churkin expresses his country's concerns over possible human rights abuses in Estonia and Latvia. He said Russia was worried about Estonia's plans to elect an "ethnic parliament."

The council of the Bank of Estonia decides to cease the further extension of loan agreements with commercial banks and to immediately reclaim payments from banks that have exceeded their loan terms.

Five years ago

Estonia will have two official languages in 2007, therefore a recent Russian schools amendment should cause no problems to the country's Russian-speakers, chairman of the Russian Party in Estonia (RPE) Nikolai Maspanov said Sept. 11. The Estonian Parliament adopted a law stating that the provision of Russian-medium secondary education in state and municipal schools will continue until the year 2007. "By the year 2007 there will be two official languages in Estonia anyway," Maspanov said.

A survival exercise gone wrong claims the lives of 14 professional peacekeepers and shocked Estonia's military structures, leaving society groping for answers. A squall swept 22 soldiers on a peacekeeping mission, who were wading across a strait, into deep water near Paldiski on the northwestern coast Sept. 11.

A court in Tallinn on Sept. 15 orders criminal action started against the Center Party's leader Edgar Savisaar based on a suit by a journalist earlier convicted for insulting Savisaar's wife. Journalist Enno Tammer, of the Postimees daily, is seeking action against Savisaar over an interview from a year an a half ago in which Savisaar accussed him of mocking people.