Eesti in brief - 2004-05-06

Konstantin Provalov, son of Russia's ambassador to Estonia, assualted a security worker in a Tallinn nightclub on May 1. The 22-year-old son of the ambassador was reportedly drunk, swore at the security worker and punched him in the stomach. After the police arrived the "diplo-brat" reportedly carried on with threats and was taken out of the police station by the security supervisor of the Russian Embassy after receiving an 11-euro fine for disturbing the peace.
Estonia is not ready for a potential increase in the number of asylum seekers, according to Urmas Reinsalu, head of the constitutional commission of Parliament. In the EU there is one asylum seeker per 1,000 residents, and Estonia would not be able to face such a rate, Reinsalu said. In the last several years the number of asylum seekers coming to Estonia from abroad was slightly over 20.

The grain theft scheme involving the government's strategic reserve that hit the waves in March was finally solved by the security police, and evidence against the scheme's masterminds was disclosed during the investigation, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported last week. According to the police, about 13,800 tons of grain were illegally taken from the silo owned by Rakvere Viljasalv, and the company also used to purchase grain from Latvia and Russia and sell it under different certificates of origin. The hoax became difficult to conceal as the company failed to properly organize the paperwork.

Prime Minister Juhan Parts (photo) last week sent a letter to government heads of all the EU countries, Norway, Switzerland, the United States and Russia, seeking their support for condemning totalitarian regimes throughout the world. Conclusions of an independent international commission led by senior Finnish diplomat Max Jakobson concerning crimes against humanity committed in Estonia during the first two years (1940-1941) of the Soviet occupation were attached to Parts' letter. Using the same wording as in the EU-Russia joint declaration signed on April 27, Parts refers to crimes against Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and "individuals belonging to minorities" during the Soviet rule. The letter is said to be a part of the plan to persuade the European Parliament to condemn the communist totalitarian regime and receive compensation for occupation damages from Russia.

Four parliamentary factions submitted a bill on May 4 that calls for erecting the much-disputed freedom monument on the territory of the Song Festival Ground east of downtown Tallinn. The bill was signed by the factions of the People's Union and Reform Party, as well as by the opposition Center and Social Democratic parties. The choice of location would highlight the tradition of song festivals as a historically important phenomenon of the independence drive and cultural identity of the Estonian people, authors of the bill said.