Posts Tagged estonian government
Real Estate Property Investment Series: Focus Estonia 2007
Posted by alibabarika in Estonia Articles on September 7, 2010
Estonia is a relatively recent addition to the European Union having joined in 2004, and it is one of the most successful and affluent of the new members too. In just a few short years the Estonian government transformed theirs into a modern market economy and by 2007 Estonians’ per capita GDP, as measured using the purchasing power parity method, will be on a par with Portugal’s which sits at around 70% of the EU average…an impressive rise in economic fortunes in such a short period of time.
Contributing to the economic success of the nation is the fact that Estonia has an attractive flat tax rate, it has developed impressive electronics and telecommunications sectors and has strong trade links with some of the more affluent nations surrounding it such as Finland and some of the largest economies in mainland Europe such as Germany. The rise in economic fortunes of Estonia has seen unemployment halve in a few short years and as GDP has grown so has the mortgage market in Estonia – it has grown by 80% in actual fact.
Cyberwar in Estonia and the Middle East
Posted by alibabarika in Estonia Articles on July 19, 2010
Did a member of your family help launch a cyber attack that brought an entire nation to its knees? No, seriously, don’t laugh. In April 2007, communications in the Baltic state of Estonia were crippled through a coordinated attack that relied on the computers of millions of innocent users around the world, just like you and your kin. The strike was notable in fully demonstrating how cyber war had moved from idea to reality. And it all started with the movements of a single soldier.
The Bronze Soldier is a two-meter statue which formerly stood in a small square in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, above the burial site of Soviet soldiers lost in the Second World War. The memorial has long divided the population of the country, with native Estonians considering it a symbol of Soviet (and formerly Nazi) occupation and a large minority population (around 25% of the total) of ethnic Russian immigrants seeing it as an emblem of Soviet victory over the Nazis and Russian claims over Estonia. When the country’s newly appointed Ansip government initiated plans to relocate the statue and the remains as part of a 2007 electoral mandate, the move sparked the worst riots the country had ever seen – and a startling cyber attack from Russia.