Opinion

Amalie Khachatryan, a Tallinn University MA student, details the many obstacles she faced while apartment hunting in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.   Though everyone chooses to live in Estonia for different reasons – work, study, research, volunteering, joining a spouse or just wanting an adventure – they’ll doubtlessly go through the same procedure when settling […]

Lisanna Beckner, the operations manager for a hotel in Tallinn, provides some life hacks for being polite in the Estonian society. Estonians are often stereotyped as cold and hard to reach, unapproachable. Allegedly, we don’t speak, don’t make eye contact, nor any of the other things that would suggest we’re comfortable around strangers. However, the

Historical considerations loom large in the Kremlin’s latest provocations against Ukraine, but while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, openly dreams of a greater Slavic empire, his behavior is driven even more by his own miscalculations over the past decade, Carl Bilt, the former prime minister of Sweden, writes. As reports pile up about Russia’s military

Kristo Reinsalu, the general manager of the Estonian Aviation Cluster, writes that if Estonia wants to remain one of the world’s most innovative nations, it seriously needs to look into the advancement of using and developing drones, draft its own drone laws and set up an ambitious national programme for drone technology. The South Korean pavilion at EXPO

The executive editor of Estonian World, Sten Hankewitz, is calling out the advocacy on criminalising “hate speech”, saying that if you curb the freedom of speech, then you’re curbing basic human rights, not advancing them. According to the latest report by the Estonian Human Rights Centre, the human rights situation in Estonia has deteriorated in

Egert Rünne, the executive director of the Estonian Human Rights Centre, writes that gone is the passionate advocacy for human rights that the Reform Party showed in opposition; also, the Reform-led government has moved forward with bills that don’t have all the possible threats to our rights mitigated. Thirty years after restoring our independence, many

Jaak Treiman, the honorary consul of Estonia in Los Angeles, California, writes that the spirit of liberty does not exist in a self-centred society where people’s freedom is unlimited – every democratic society must have some constraints on individual liberties so that all its members can maximise their freedom. Recently, Estonia celebrated the 30th anniversary

Portuguese expat Joao Rei, who lives in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, writes that to get more Estonians vaccinated against COVID-19, the reinforcing information shouldn’t necessarily come from the government, but from the people they trust – their neighbours, friends or even their priest. “What makes Portugal different?” That was the question I asked my friends

The new Estonian president, Alar Karis, who assumed office on 11 October, emphasised at his inauguration ceremony the freedom of speech and parliamentary debate, national culture, education and intelligence, climate change and international cooperation; Estonian World publishes Karis’ speech in a lightly edited and shortened form. One hundred years ago, extensive construction was underway here.