USB to Europe

In Estonia, it is impossible to force people to speak only Russian. Everyone here will soon speak English. Travel notes

Politically correct In Estonia, I used to ask politically incorrect questions all the time. I asked the prefect of the Eastern Prefecture Aldis Alus: “Who commits more crimes: Russians or Estonians?” “We don’t keep such statistics,” he was embarrassed ...

Politically correct

In Estonia, I always asked politically incorrect questions. I asked the prefect of the Eastern Prefecture Aldis Alus:

— Who commits more crimes: Russians or Estonians?

“We don’t keep such statistics,” the prefect was embarrassed.

Lies. Crime and drug addiction among the Russian-speaking population is higher. Much.

Andres Yaggo, the head of the criminal police of Narva, I asked:

— In Narva, 95% of the population are Russians, why are you an Estonian?

- Why not? Yaggo was confused.

Because in Estonia, of course, there is an unspoken ban on Russian-speakers holding public office.

Do you know what a fascist is? This is someone who only asks one of these questions. And on the basis of it he builds a theory that the Russians All the Beasts or the Russians Offended Again.

Red Director

Estonia's largest shipbuilding company BLRT group originated from a small shipyard in Tallinn. The bottom is 12 m, the workshops are still of royal construction.

BLRT group won the competition and made subway tunnels for the city of Stockholm; has built five huge ferries and is building the world's largest gas-fired ferry for Norwegians. She built two platforms (transformer and working) for the world's first offshore wind farm and entered the most elite club in the world: the club of offshore oil platform manufacturers - so far, however, only makes details.

BLRT has bought a shipyard in Finland (where it has just done exclusive work for the Academy of Sciences on the Akademik Fedorov), a plant in Klaipeda and (just now) a Baltija Shipyard in Riga from Odensee.

To my question: “How did you find money during the crisis, when shipbuilding fell by 40%?” - the owner of the company, Fedor Berman, replied: “And you should always buy during a crisis. Otherwise, it's too expensive." - "Who gave the loans?" “Banks will always give a good borrower.”

And Berman told how in 1993, when the plant disrupted repair work due to a batch of defective iron, he brought 10 welders from Finland, 10 from Sweden (what is it for a poor Soviet plant in 1993 to pay a welder from Sweden), and they completed the work at a loss, but on time. “Reputation is everything,” Mr. Berman said.

Now the most interesting question: who is this person who is afraid of Chinese competition, complains that the Greeks do not always pay on time, and explains that “in order to do class A work, you yourself must be in class A”?

Answer: former red director.

Fedor Abramovich Berman graduated from the Kaliningrad Institute, and the Soviet head office appointed him acting. director two years before independence.

Now I have a simple question: why, while in Russia, the “red directors” were ruining their enterprises, the “red director” Berman hired Swedes and Finns? Is it that the air of Estonia had such an effect on him?

The answer to this question is called "monetary reform". She was draconian - 1500 rubles. exchanged for 150 Estonian kroons, nailed to the stamp, and then to the euro: and since then the kroon exchange rate has not changed.

Our reformers liked to explain to us that they carried out wonderful reforms, but only the damned "red directors" were not ready for them. I confess - I repeated this stupidity myself. I won't do it again. The example of Fyodor Berman shows that it was not about the directors, but about the reformers.

Narva

Narva is the ghetto of Estonia. Narva has always been a Russian city, but in 1940 the NKVD shot down Russians in Narva, especially Old Believers and whites. Russians in Narva were brought there in the 70s for "chemistry". "Chemistry" went bankrupt, the lumpen remained. Narva is unemployment, ORT broadcasting, smuggling (they will either throw a hose-alcohol pipeline along the river, or float boxes of cigarettes) and the population voting for the centrists.

After the leader of the centrists, Savissaar, fraternized with United Russia, he received a loan of 2 million crowns from a company from Liechtenstein. Actually, this is not accepted in Estonia, but the Savissaar voter, just like the voter of Berlusconi or Zhirinovsky, does not care about such trifles.

And so I come to the East Prefecture and ask the prefect Aldis Alus:

- And what is the worst crime committed by a policeman in the last few months?

“Oh,” Alus answers me, “we had a terrible case when a police officer illegally entered the database to find out who had pawned his son, who was driving without a license.

And this is where in the early 90s they blew up and cut: then in Narva there was even a policeman who was caught in Russia, moonlighting as a killer. What is the difference? With regard to power. If the authorities believe that the police serve the society, and not the authorities, the police serve the society.

"Don't compare yourself to them"

Former Minister of State Raivo Vare tells how he went after the Bronze Soldier to Narva to talk to the local bourgeoisie. The businessman got up and presented claims to the Chukhonian fascists: in the midst of unrest, he was driving, carrying weapons in the trunk (!), And the police stopped him and turned to you in Russian. This "you" terribly outraged him.

- And if the traffic police stopped you near Moscow?

“So how can we compare ourselves with them!” — offended objected patriot of Russia.

Sillamae

The port of Sillamäe fell victim to the war for the Bronze Soldier. The port was built a few years ago on the territory of the Silmet factory, privatized by former MP Tiit Vahi.

The port with a depth of 16 meters can receive any ships passing through the Danish Strait. Empty moorings go into the distance: an oil tanker with the latest equipment; EuroChem terminal, Akron terminal.

Against the backdrop of all this billion-dollar magnificence, a single dry cargo ship with the flag of the state of Antigua and Barbuda and the inscription Tallin through one "n" is unloaded in the port. It unloads some white sand. "Where are the ships?" I ask.

- Ah ... er ... don’t think, in a modern port it’s not necessary for ships to stop all the time. You have outdated ideas.

Yeah. And tankers can now unload via USB.

The owners and managers of the port, as usual, repeat that one should be friends with Russia, but there are too many transit experts in Estonia to hide the truth.

After the Bronze Soldier at the Russian railway, something happened to the wagons going to Estonia. There is no official ban, but there are no wagons either. Either their wheels don’t knock like that, or the locomotive’s whistle doesn’t whistle like that. Previously, there were 34 trains, now 16.

The main victims are medium-sized exporters. They are completely killed. But the majors also suffered. TNK-BP no longer carries, Melnichenko (EuroChem) no longer carries, Kantor (Akron) carries, but they say they get him for it. But for some reason, the restrictions did not affect Gennady Timchenko. For him, the carriages are located, and the whistles at the locomotives whistle. The Kremlin's tacit ban allowed Timchenko's companies to get hold of those oil workers who used to transport themselves: for example, TNK-BP.

All other Russians who are not included in the circle of friends of Prime Minister Putin are charged with a patriotic duty to carry through Ust-Luga and Primorsk. In Ust-Luga, the depth is 14 meters, and the work to deepen the bottom has already eaten up 500 million euros. The amount of money that can be drowned in the sea is unlimited.

No, don't think. Of course, it is better to carry through yourself than through a neighbor. Just by virtue of geography and geology (and the Ust-Luga river, which carries hundreds of thousands of tons of sand into the sea), the only way for Russia to acquire a convenient deep-water port in the Baltic is to conquer Estonia back.

Elcoteq

In the disgusting Tallinn quarter of Lasnamäe (Soviet Vykhino-Zhulebino) there is a small Elcoteq factory. Elcoteq is the Finnish assembly line for everything. Since 1992, Elсoteq has been assembling Eriksson phones in Estonia, and last year Ericsson opened its own assembly in Estonia, and the fab had to move from EADS to Immarsat. Elcoteq used unemployed Russian engineers who abounded in Tallinn in 1992 as a skilled and cheap labor force. Troubleshooting team of Russians is now working all over the world: Elcoteq has two factories in China, two in India, one in Brazil, Hungary, Mexico, etc.

“It is much more difficult to work in Estonia than in China,” complains senior manager Arno Kolk. - In China, when the government invites a foreign manufacturer, it sets a condition for him: if you want to work for the domestic market, then, kindly, produce some of the components locally. You will not seduce anyone with our internal market.

— And Russia? I ask.

— We have built a factory in St. Petersburg. But we had to close it.

Skype

On the outskirts of Tallinn, in a new building near the sign "Beware of squirrels!", stands the office of a company that, in my opinion, is a symbol of Freedom and the Internet.

This company is called Skype. Skype was invented by two Estonians, a Swede and a Dane. Skype is headquartered in Luxembourg, because, as I was honestly admitted, it is inconvenient to fly to Tallinn, but Tallinn has the largest office.

The largest office is a floor with a couple of dozen computers. Skype has almost no servers. The Skype server is your computer when it is connected to the Skype user network. A message sent over Skype cannot even be traced back to the end user, because the data is broken into packets that go through any computer that enters the cloud, and it is not clear whether this message is for you or for another member of the cloud. The public key code that is generated by each user cannot be decrypted by Skype itself, it is a distributed self-organized peer-to-peer network, which is currently the largest electronic cloud on the planet, and in general, no one really knows How is she going to carry herself.

Do you remember the story of Little Red Riding Hood? Imagine a forest with Little Red Riding Hood on one side and Grandmother on the other. Usually Little Red Riding Hood takes a bus along the forest in the morning, and with several transfers in the evening reaches her grandmother. Our company only offers a map on how to quickly and directly pass through the forest. All users are happy: both Little Red Riding Hood and grandmother. Everyone except the owner of the bus.

The owner of the bus is the telecommunications companies. Recently in Russia, a complaint was filed against Skype that it provides telecommunications services without a license in Russia, does not pay taxes and creates unfair competition.

Here in Skolkovo they promise to make Google a month. I wonder if Skype was made in Russia, what terms would its creators get?

— And how many Russians work for you? I ask.

- Don't know. We have people of forty nationalities working in this office. We all communicate in English.

e-government

When you are a small country, it is very bad for the economy. But it is very good for electronic services.

In May 2001, Estonian IT guru Linnar Viik began to think about how to help his native government. And the government, after thinking, said: you can make us an electronic government. But we have two conditions: first, the work must be completed by August. Second, we don't have money.

And Estonian IT specialists, instead of going on a traditional summer vacation, have created an electronic government.

What is now in Estonia is (in full) only in Estonia and Singapore. 84% of the Estonian population has an ID, which has the function of an electronic signature (and replaces all other documents). With this ID, an online company is done in 18 minutes, and a tax return in 3 minutes. The fact is that the declaration is sent to you by the computer already completed, and you only need to correct it.

There is an e-school in Estonia. The child’s grades are sent to you via the Internet, and he cannot fake them (and if he can, any Skype will immediately tear him off with his hands). There is e-health - the doctor will send you a prescription over the Internet. There is electronic voting: you vote with an electronic signature, and as many as you want: the system will count only the last vote. This is so that it makes no sense to buy votes. Because even if you sold someone a vote and spent a card in his presence, then in the evening you can vote again - and hello!

But the coolest thing is the “electronic road”. Consolidated databases that are not just available to any citizen. Any citizen can see who and why requested data about him. (So ​​the Narva policeman was, among other things, an excellent fool.) This is about the issue of popular discontent, which buried a similar project in the UK. The network does not limit freedom, on the contrary, it guarantees it. In any country in the world, a state can spy on its citizen. But only in Estonia does a citizen find out about it.

(Ending to follow)