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Estonia

Economy

Why Estonia's EU "Digital Residency" Is Getting Popular In China — And Taiwan

An Estonian e-residency that gives holders access to the country's government services and business networks has growing takeup in both mainland China and Taiwan. For both business and political reasons.

For many, paying 100 euros is no big deal. And as some have discovered, it can also earn you residency in a European Union country.

From 2014 to 2022, 90,000 people worldwide decided to invest €100 for an identity card issued by the Estonian government, which wrote "Digital identity card–Electronic use only".

This is the "E-Residency of Estonia." It is not traditional resident status: the holder does not have rights to permanent physical residency in Estonia, and is not exempt from visa requirements. And yet the card allows the holder to connect remotely to Estonia's government and business networks and enjoy services such as opening a bank account, forming a company, making financial payments and other services essentially equivalent to those of an Estonian resident.

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Russia Strikes More Civilian Targets, Estonia Prime Minister Resigns, Nintendo Pictures

👋 Merhaba!*

Welcome to Thursday, where Russia keeps shelling non-military targets across Ukraine, Estonia’s prime minister resigns to form a new government and Nintendo eyes the big screen. Meanwhile, Serhiy Haidai (President Zelensky's chief adviser on the Donbas) tells Ukrainian daily Livy Bereg why the Ukrainian military was forced to retreat from key positions.

[*Turkish]

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Baltic Leitmotiv

A man busking in the shade, a charming archway ... Going through my archives, this picture looked so familiar that I thought I'd already shown it here on Worldcrunch. But I was actually thinking of a different photograph that I took, as luck would have it, during the same tour of the Baltic states, in neighboring Riga.

Estonia, Leading The EU Into The E-Future

With Britain missing its turn for the European Union presidency in light of Brexit, the rotating six-month duty has fallen into Estonia's lap earlier than planned.

Until the end of the year, the northernmost Baltic country will lead the EU through a complicated period: On top of difficult divorce negotiations between Britain and the 27-nation bloc, Estonia will also oversee talks on the Russian Nordstream 2 gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea to Germany, an issue over which several diverging interests are likely to face off in Europe.

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Post-Soviet Spire

Strange to think that only five years before we toured the Baltic states, the spire of St. Olaf's church — which ranks among the tallest in the world — was still used as a radio tower and surveillance point by the KGB in the Estonian capital.

blog

Eurovision 2015 Contestants: Estonia

In 2001, Estonia became the first former Soviet country to win Eurovision. The annual song contest had become quite popular there after its first participation in 1994 and has always been since then. So much so that, in 2009, when Estonia said it would withdraw from the contest, set to be held in Moscow during to the ongoing Russo-Georgian War, the national broadcaster ERR announced it would still send an artist to perform in Russia due to public demand.

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Estonia
Romain Gueugneau

Estonia, How A Former Soviet State Became The Next Silicon Valley

TALLINN - It’s 4 p.m., and night is already falling on Tallinn. The wind is freezing. Covered in snow, the old Soviet military barracks located on the outskirts of Estonia’s capital city look like the set of a Cold War movie.

Uniformed soldiers occasionally cross the courtyard. You almost expect James Bond to suddenly come around the corner of one of the three buildings on the site that in 2008 became the headquarters of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence.

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Estonia
Sven Felix Kellerhoff

World War II: Push To Honor Estonian SS Nazi Unit Sparks Outrage

The small Baltic nation was caught between Soviet and Nazi ambitions, and Estonian members of SS units are remembered by some for staving off the Red Army. But others can't forget that some 1,000 Estonian Jews, 250 Roma and 7,000 Christians were

BERLIN - Though still vague on details, plans are once again afoot in Estonia to posthumously honor as "freedom fighters' those who served in Estonian units of the Waffen SS, an armed wing of the Schutzstaffel police squadrons.

Similar past initiatives, which nationalists say are meant to pay tribute to those who pushed back the Soviet army, have failed. But new draft legislation to honor the Estonian SS members is being drawn up, and is expected to be introduced into the Estonian Parliament in March.

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Estonia

Estonia Joins Euro At Currency Zone’s Lowest Moment

The Baltic republic has just become the euro zone's 17th member state, carrying low public debt and high hopes for its economy

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