No. 30

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Our People, Our State and Our Space

The key to the survival of the state of Estonia is the good relations between the Estonians and Russians living here. It is the task of the younger generation of Russians living in Estonia to shape the identity of local Russians.

True, every year the city of Narva is losing more than a thousand of its citizens, as we can read in the essay written by Karin Raig, the Director of Narva College of the University of Tartu. During the last quarter of a century the population of the town has decreased by one fourth. Young people are leaving, either for Tallinn or in most cases abroad. But those who stay should not be distrusted only because Russia, that in spring occupied Crimea (which very much resembles the events in the Baltic States in 1940s) and invaded East Ukraine, has become aggressive towards its neighbours.

Part of our Russians live in a different information space, as we can read in the article by Triin Vihalemm and other researchers of the University of Tartu. They may support Putin’s activities in Russia and Ukraine, but this does not mean that they support separatism in Estonia. They may need the Estonian Russian-language TV channel Andres Jõesaar writes about. As the Member of the Board of Estonian Public Broadcasting Company Ainar Ruussaar says: we are not creating a channel for counter-propaganda, we are giving the Russians of Estonia a possibility to speak about the issues of their community to their community.

The representatives of the parties in the Riigikogu discuss the security situation in the conversation circle. Besides demography, social affairs and security, this issue of Riigikogu Toimetised also tells about Estonia’s efforts to become a full member of the European Space Agency.There is also an article about e-elections, written by Kristjan Vassil and the researches of the University of Tartu; the ethic principles of the drafting of the budget of Tallinn and the interests of nation states in the European Union are also discussed.

Riigikogu Toimetised continues its efforts to bring together political and scientific thinking, maybe in a more focused form that before, concentrating also on the nationally important issues of the moment.

During recent months, the Chancellery of the Riigikogu and the Board of Riigikogu Toimetised have had discussions on reforming the concept and outlook of the journal. The reform of the content was gradually started already in the previous issue published in the first half of this year, now we are dealing with the appearance of Riigikogu Toimetised. The next issue of Riigikogu Toimetised – no 31 – will be in full colour.

Riigikogu Toimetised is still a paper publication. But it is already being discussed what the journal could look like in the web, and this is connected with the new web solution of the Riigikogu, which will be ready next year. It is understandable that we have to be where the people are – and more and more of our readers, especially the younger generation, are in the digital world.

Full article in Estonian

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