Eesti in brief - 2004-04-01

Peeter Kreitzberg (photo) won the internal elections of the Center Party and will now be the party's No. 1 candidate for the European Parliament.

Kreitzberg's victory is seen as a weakening of influence of party chairman Edgar Savisaar, who refused to run for health reasons. Kreitzberg has recently criticized Savisaar, Tallinn's mayor, for being too authoritarian. The Center Party will have 12 candidates for the European Parliament elections scheduled in Estonia for June 13.

The Estonian Taxpayers Association, an NGO representing the rights of local taxpayers, named the country's Tax and Customs Board the Taxpayer's Enemy 2003 for "being motivated by performance-dependant payments" and "leading the board toward a management crisis by incompetent work." The title Taxpayer's Friend 2003 was awarded to the Eesti Ekspress weekly for its coverage of tax-related developments.

Police arrested Sander Leivo, the 21-year-old son of Interior Minister Margus Leivo, as he attempted to purchase marijuana last week. Sander Leivo was caught by coincidence during a police operation aimed at busting a Tallinn drug dealer. In 2000 he was arrested for possessing a small amount of drugs and being under the influence of these substances.

Sergei C., an employee of the Russian customs board who resides in the northeastern Estonian city of Narva, was shot on March 25. The customs employee was shot at six times and received three non-fatal wounds. Estonian police said that the assault might be connected with Sergei's work as a customs official.

Students are offering to do university thesis work for others, charging 640 euros to 1,600 euros for their time. Tartu University academic staff admitted it was nearly impossible to confirm the exact author of a thesis. Plagiarism checks at Tartu University have been increased, and six students have been expelled recently for taking texts from the Internet and failing to cite their sources.

Beginning last week Estonian citizens gained the ability to monitor those peeking at their personal data. Those who hold the new ID-card can log in to a Web site launched by the Citizenship and Migration Board to see which official requested the information and when.

On March 30 the Tartu County Court ruled to detain Andress Bergmann, the former chairman of the bank ERA, which went bankrupt in 1999. Bergmann was released on a 1 million kroon (64,000 euro) bail since he violated his obligation to remain in Estonia. According to the court, Bergmann visited Germany last week. The former chairman, released from pretrial custody in 2002, can appeal the decision within five days.

The Tallinn city government admitted Estonia's capital has a budget deficit of nearly 16 million euros. The city had previously denied the budget problem and stated that the 2003 budget would be fulfilled properly. The budget deficit was caused by the failure to sell several real estate assets.