New Year - 2012

On the way from Singapore to the US, I made a stop in Tallinn and welcomed the New Year at home.  Shortly before the end of 2011, I had been e-mailed Estonian news that involved three young Pro Patria and Res Publica Alliance (a nationalist-conservative political party) politicians - two of them members of Parliament and one a member of Tallinn City Council - who were instrumental in registering 147 Russian businessmen (some of them members of organized crime groups) in Estonia, thus granting them residence permits.  Such permits also allow the person to travel in the Schengen room (territory without inner borders). The Minister of Economic Affairs and the Interior Minister, both members of the above named Party, were accused of complicity.

To my surprise, President Ilves did not address this issue in the traditional New Year greeting to the nation, nor call for the resignation of these politicians.  He has become quite unpopular with an increasing number of Estonians, largely due to his and his wife’s apparent greed, and his aloofness.  As a consequence, he lacks moral authority which is considered a President’s major role in the republic’s parliamentary system of government. Addressing the issue of accountability by our political leaders and the President’s lack of moral authority, I wrote an article that appeared in Delfi after it had been rejected by a nation-wide weekly.  After that, articles by several noted commentators also appeared in the media, pointing out the lack of accountability and unethical behavior by the country’s leaders.

By the end of the year, one of the above parliamentarians and the City Council member had resigned (also left the Party), but the other parliamentarian is still in place.  There were calls in the Party ranks for the two ministers to resign, but when it came to a vote in the Executive Committee, the motion did not receive any Yes votes.  The two ministers remain in office.  However, quite a number of long-time members of that Party cancelled their membership over the scandal, but interestingly enough, the Party reportedly acquired a considerable number of new members.  The Party is also in the Coalition Government, and the Government has not fallen, either.

One would think that the above state of affairs would have been enough for this little country to digest, but at the beginning of April the President attended an event organized by a member of Parliament in Tallinn to criticize Russia’s authorities for arresting the punk rock ensemble “Pussy Riot” who had entered Christ the Redeemer Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow and shouted anti-Putin phrases in front of the altar. For lending his support by his presence at this event, President Ilves and the members of Parliament who had sent a protest letter to the Kremlin were criticized by the Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, who saw these actions as condoning desecration of a house of worship and offending the faithful who do not see “Pussy Riot” performance as a political act.  

Then we celebrated Easter peacefully and the ground was covered with snow.