Eesti Elu / Estonian Life No. 37 | September 16, 2022

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EESTI ELU reedel, 16. septembril 2022 — Friday, September 16, 2022

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland stop entry to Russian tourists through external borders Stenbock House – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will bar entry on their external borders for all Russian nationals with a short-stay Schengen visa. The restriction will come into effect in Estonia on 19 September. It will also enter into force in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland no later than that date. “Together with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, we decided to introduce common restrictions on tourism for ­ Russian nationals to protect public order and security,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. “Russia has brought war to Europe and is using all tools to undermine our societies. As the border states of the EU, we must keep Europe safe. Currently it is not possible to ensure that the Russian citizens entering the EU through Estonia do not pose a security threat. A regional agreement has been reached and now we will continue working towards a ­ tourism restriction on Russian citizens in the entire European Union.” “Travel to the European Union is a privilege, not a human right. As the people of ­ Ukraine are being tortured, murdered and terrorized, the citizens of the aggressor state ­ should not be able to enjoy the benefits of the free world. We will no longer allow Russian tourists to cross our border, ­visiting family living in Estonia will remain among exceptions,” Kallas said. This was also underlined in the joint state­ ment of the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland today. Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets said we have already imposed a sanction on Russian nationals holding a Schengen visa issued by Estonia but this does not prevent Russian citizens with Schengen visas issued by other states from travelling here or using Estonia for transit. “In

view of the EU sanction banning air traffic, Estonia’s eastern border is becoming a transit hub. Whereas in February 10 477 Russian citizens crossed Esto­ nia’s eastern border, this number has increased to more than 26 500 in July and in the summer months, more than 1000 people per day crossed the border on average. In addition to its own internal security, Estonia, an external border state, is responsible for the entire Schengen area and the mass travel of Russian nationals entails an increased security threat in current circumstances. Every country ­ has the right to close its borders for security considerations and temporarily restrict border crossings, and for ensuring security in the region and the ­ Schengen area more broadly, together with the other Baltic States and Poland we will restrict the transit of Russian tourists,” the minister said. Läänemets said that from a moral perspective, it was important to continue looking for a solution on the EU level but at the moment, it was necessary to quickly introduce additional measures to mitigate the threats that tourism transit entails for the internal security and public order of the region. Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said that work on a EU-wide solution would con­ tinue. “Until we have come to an agreement on EU level on restricting entry for Russian nationals into the European ­ Union, we are imposing these restrictions regionally. This is our legitimate response to the mass movement of Russian tourists through our countries to the rest of Europe.” Minister Reinsalu added that continuing with sanctions against Russia was crucial for putting relentless pressure on Russia, and from Estonia’s foreign policy perspective, it is a values-based and existential issue. The restriction does not

The new face…

grandfather. I remember him eating vegetables for breakfast and being so active in taking care of the land around him. It’s very humbling thinking about his life and what he accomp­ lished. The exhausted new parent that I am cannot imagine coming home from a full-time (and often overtime) job as a type­ setter for a newspaper, and ­sitting down to write!? I wish I could sit down with him and ask him what his secret was. But I have a feeling he was able to do what he was able to do mostly because he had a supportive and loving wife. I am only able to do this interview right now because I have a husband who, after coming home from a hard job, happily takes our daughter out so I can work for a few hours. Being an artist/ parent is an insane juggling act.

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beautifully and hung on a wall (and hopefully with a big fat red dot sticker next to it, indicating that it’s SOLD!). KK: Your grandfather Arved Viirlaid, a great and famed Estonian-Canadian author, would have had his 100th birthday just recently on April 11th. What was he like and what was it like being his granddaughter? Did your grandfather encourage your creative nature and did he somehow inspire you to become an artist? JM: Thank you for mentioning this. His 100th birthday… I feel so proud of him and I wish I could have celebrated this day with him. I remember him as a quiet, wise and dedicated

a­pply to all Russian citizens. Crossing the state border will continue to be possible for Russian nationals visiting family members or co-parents of minor children living in the Schengen area on a valid legal basis. Exemptions will continue to apply to diplomats; Russian ­ ­nationals with a short-stay visa and registered employment in Estonia or with a student visitor visa, as well as for people directly employed in the inter­ national transport of goods and passengers. Exceptional entry is also allowed on humanitarian grounds and for dissidents. Transit without delay is also ­allowed to people who need to travel through Estonia to reach their country of residence. Exemptions will also apply when crossing Latvian, Lithua­ nian and Polish borders. As of Monday, Russian nationals have 49 804 valid ­ ­visas issued by Estonia, 47 998 of which are short-stay visas and 1805 are long-stay visas. The purpose of travel is tourism in 19 285 cases and in 20 389 cases it is visiting family and friends. Other countries issue more than three million Schen­ gen visas a year, valid for up to five years and allowing multiple entry to the Schengen area. According to estimates, at least 10 million Russian citizens hold a valid short-stay Schengen visa. The government’s decision invalidates the current restriction on entry or the so-called Russian and Belarusian sanction regulation; new restrictions are introduced according to the State Borders Act. The Govern­ ment Communication Unit will publish the order and the expla­ natory memorandum on the website https://kriis.ee/en/travelling-crossing-state-border/travelling-estonia/visas-russian-citizens, where you can find additional information and answers to frequently asked questions. The joint statement of the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland: https://valitsus.ee/en/news/joint­statement-prime-ministers-estonia-latvia-lithuania-and-poland GOVERNMENT OF ESTONIA

But it has been done and ­continues to be done somehow. My grandfather always told me he was proud of me and my sister (even when I chose to go to art school and not law school haha). We miss him a lot and wish so much that we had lived closer, to spend more time with him and to hear his stories – the ones that didn’t turn into novels or poems. KK: How do you see “Estonian-ness” and that part of your heritage peeking through in your personality and day-to-day life? JM: My love of dark rye, sauna, (my friend Kadri calls me “sauna hunt”), choirs and dairy products runs deep. And you’ll always find a jar of eesti mesi in my kitchen. However I don’t automatically think of bringing gifts to the host of a

The bike share program in Tartu.

Nr. 37

Photo: err.com

How this Estonian county is revolutionizing local transportation (For more information on Ampler e-bikes, read Vincent Teetsov’s article “Can e-bikes solve our transit challenges?” in the English section of Estonian Life Nr. 28!) Torontonians are already well-acquainted with the city’s bike share program, which allows riders to temporarily rent a bike and return it to any one of the city’s docking stations. Hiiu County in Estonia is in the process of creating a similar bike sharing network. Peep Lillemägi, board member of the Estonian nongovernmental organization Ungrukivi Selts, first proposed the idea back in 2020. “Hiiumaa is a nice island in the sense that 20 kilometers gets you quite far,” Lillemägi told ERR. “The island is surrounded by a ring road; more and more people are coming here to share their lives between Tallinn and the island. [Having] six to eight bike rental stations, [with] some of them located in Hiiumaa’s beautiful marinas, [will] give yacht tourists further options [to explore Hiiu county.]” The twist: instead of standard, manual bikes, Lillemägi is opting to use Estonian-made Ampler brand electric bikes (or e-bikes), which have electric motors and rechargeable bat­ teries, making long-distance pedaling much easier. But in the midst of Estonia’s current energy crisis, where supply is low and prices are skyrocketing, one has to ask: what powers these bikes? “In Heltermaa harbor and in Kõrgessaare, there are small houses called Trian-S that store energy with the help of solar panels, created by Tõnis Kasemägi, who operates in Hiiu County. Customers pick up

bikes from these locations and return them when they are done to charge. By opting to use solar-­ powered bikes, Kasemägi doesn’t have to rely on Estonia’s dwind­ ling energy supply and high costs. “In Estonia, the ­average electricity price in July 2022 was 233.21 euros per megawatt hour, more than twice as much as in July 2021, when the a­verage price was 83.78 euros per megawatt hour,” ­ wrote The Baltic Times. “The advantage of the [Trian-S] house is that it does not need Eesti Energia or other networks behind it,” said Kasemägi. However, one common concern about solar-powered machinery is that its battery ­ will deplete during a prolonged period of overcast, cloudy weather. But on a small island like Hiiumaa, it’s unlikely that the battery will run out in a ­single day’s journey, even if the sun stays hidden. “You can ride 50 to 70 kilometers with one full battery, and with that distance you can get quite far in Hiiumaa,” said Lillemägi to ERR. “These bikes are also such that if you manage to run out of battery, ­ you can use it like a normal ­bicycle and crank it purely with bone steam, but the distances in Hiiumaa are so short, that this need probably won’t arise – the battery can get everywhere,” ­explained Lillemägi. Currently, Lillemägi has 12 Ampler bikes operating in the bike share across Hiiu County, but he plans on more than doubling that number in the ­ near future. If you’re planning on going to Hiiu County any time soon, be sure to check out Lillemägi’s bike share and zip across the ­island with style!

dinner party, I smile in photos and like a true Canadian, I ask strangers how they are doing. Seriously though, I think Esto­ nians and descendants of Esto­ nians are built with a certain resilience or perseverance and ­ this is something I definitely try to carry with me living my life and while making art.

Stay tuned for the next interview coming up soon! If you’re interested in knowing more about the design aspects of VEMU’s rebrand and the stories behind them, check out a seminar on that here: https://www.youtube.com/ w a t c h ? v = S m j k o _ LwwYg&t=85s

Natalie Jenkins, LJI reporter