07.09.26 OPINION ... Cutting two thirds of LEADER funding reduces, along with the number of projects, local people's ability to influence the future of their region, writes Hendrik Johannes Terras.

06.09.26 OPINION ... People are still driven by Vanity, Envy, Fame, Convenience, Money and Power. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make any of them disappear, writes Tiit Hennoste, originally in Sirp magazine.

06.09.26 OPINION ... The lives of Estonian people will not be improved by Kristen Michal's sugar‑coating nor by Urmas Reinsalu's populism, writes Lavly Perling.

05.09.26 OPINION ... It is extremely cynical to hear concern about budget balance from those who themselves have been the architects of irresponsible decisions, writes Mart Võrklaev in response to Jüri Ratas' commentary "Growth bought with state debt will clip future prosperity."

05.09.26 OPINION ... Don't believe the coalition's latest assurances that taxes won't rise again or that the budget will magically balance thanks to some mysterious internal reserves. Budget arithmetic clearly shows these promises won't hold, writes Jüri Ratas.

04.09.26 OPINION ... This time, with the help of Sean Wiswesser, we take a closer look at Russian intelligence methods. As sending their own officers abroad and relying on long-term agents has become more difficult, Russian intelligence increasingly uses one-time and unstable sources, Harri Tiido writes.

04.09.26 OPINION ... Less exposure to forestry means less knowledge of the field and less interest in studying, working or starting a business in the sector, Liina Gross writes.

03.09.26 OPINION ... European Union countries must urgently return to the issue of utilizing Russian assets frozen following its invasion of Ukraine, writes MEP and European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs vice‑chair Urmas Paet (Reform).

03.09.26 OPINION ... Health data are not ordinary bits of information in yet another database from which investigative bodies or even courts may freely extract information during criminal proceedings, Albert Linntam writes.

02.09.26 OPINION ... Casino players who have lost heavily sometimes put their last savings on the table, take desperate risks and lose everything. Vladimir Putin may decide that everything must be thrown into the fight against Ukraine (and the West), Raimond Kaljulaid writes.

02.09.26 OPINION ... When did it happen that we stopped fighting for the best possible future for Estonia and instead often started fighting one another. From here on, we must do better, presidential candidate Ülle Madise said on Tuesday in a speech to the Riigikogu before voting started in the presidential election.

02.09.26 OPINION ... This time, the focus is on Poland's foreign‑policy strategy. Poland has been a consistent and in many ways crucial supporter of Ukraine, but recently tensions rooted in differing historical memories have resurfaced, Tiido notes.

02.09.26 OPINION ... For decades, IT needed little more than wifi and a laptop. Now the future is power plants, chip factories, satellites and data centers, says R2 tech columnist Kristjan Port.

01.09.26 OPINION ... In a good school, our children learn how to be human — empathy, searching for and finding shared interests, understanding and acknowledging different opinions, and also recognizing the boundaries where it is time to stop arguing and accept differing worldviews, writes Kersti Kaljulaid.

01.09.26 OPINION ... Getting an education must not turn into a constant race in which a child fears falling behind or not getting into high school, writes Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise.

01.09.26 OPINION ... Once parliamentarians have managed to elect a president, the focus of the political fireworks quickly swings to the next parliamentary elections. This means we will see the deepening of a hellishly irritating, mischievous politics worthy of Karlsson‑on‑the‑Roof, says Imre Kaas.

30.08.26 OPINION ... If direct presidential elections were held, the result would likely also be that Ülle Madise becomes president, notes Martin Mölder.

29.08.26 OPINION ... Not long ago it seemed that the economic downturn and high cost of living had no intention of easing, and that the most painful and bleak records in the economy would soon be set. Now, fresh statistics inject a measure of optimism, writes Ain Hanschmidt in a commentary originally published in the Employers' Manifesto 2026.

28.08.26 OPINION ... It is said that God created economists so that weather forecasters could feel like exact scientists. In reality, the way the world has changed has made predicting the future increasingly unpredictable, writes Raul Eamets.

27.08.26 OPINION ... Let the Latvians keep all those Kārums and saldējums as source of national pride. There's no need to feel envy, because Latvia — for an Estonian — is anyway "us," not "them," writes Argo Ideon.

26.08.26 OPINION ... Something has gone wrong with the European apparatus when an Estonian entrepreneur lands their first customer in Spain, only to discover that before shipping the goods, they must first navigate Spain's packaging registry, Kilvar Kessler writes.

26.08.26 OPINION ... On August 21, a celebration and concert marking the 35th anniversary of Estonia's restoration of independence was held at the Mere Cultural Center in Tallinn. Among the speakers was Gaute "Rohke Debelak" Kivistik. His full speech is published below.

25.08.26 OPINION ... Society needs institutions where uncomfortable questions can be asked without fear that, even before research begins, the politically or morally "correct" answer has already been predetermined. Just as society needs a free press, it also needs free scientific inquiry, writes Mari‑Liis Jakobson.

24.08.26 FEATURE ... Tallinn's Fringe Festival marks its 10th anniversary this year, and writer Todd Williams explains how to make the most of the month-long event taking place around the Estonian capital until September 18, and why there's something for everyone.

22.08.26 OPINION ... Special needs may vary, but barriers often arise in the same places, write young people with special needs Diana Põder and Remi Gregori Sassi.

22.08.26 OPINION ... Revised GDP figures showing Estonia's economy performed better than previously thought should prompt the government to reconsider past spending cuts and restore funding disproportionately taken from culture, Kaarel Tarand writes.

22.08.26 OPINION ... It increasingly seems that Estonia is becoming a victim of its own past success. There is too much nostalgia for the successful models of decades past and too little willingness to take risks or engage in open debate about the challenges of a new era, Tõnis Saarts finds.

22.08.26 OPINION ... Healthcare workers often have to resolve language barriers with non‑Estonian‑speaking patients on their own, because the healthcare system lacks a structured translation service and funding, writes Jekaterina Maadla.

21.08.26 OPINION ... Estonia's lower level of agricultural support was taken into account when calculating funding for the next EU budget period. This increased Estonia's allocation by roughly €546 million. The European Commission left it to Estonia to decide how to use this opportunity, writes Hendrik Johannes Terras.

21.08.26 OPINION ... Poland's success shows that rapid economic growth is entirely possible even with a more complex tax system and a progressive income tax. It would be nice if we could shed the dogma before the elections that the only virtue of a tax system is simplicity, not to say primitiveness, Indrek Neivelt writes.

20.08.26 OPINION ... Estonia is free, secure and rapidly developing, Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) said on Thursday, marking the 35th anniversary of the restoration of independence.

20.08.26 OPINION ... Estonian-ness becomes visible when a person takes conscious responsibility for what belongs to them, Riigikogu Speaker Lauri Hussar (Eesti 200) said in a speech marking the 35th anniversary of Estonia's restoration of independence.

19.08.26 OPINION ... Multiperspectival history teaching helps young people distinguish between family memory, propaganda and evidence-based history, providing a stronger foundation for Estonian civic identity, Kersti Kivirüüt writes.

19.08.26 OPINION ... Although politicians in power treat initiatives made outside the Riigikogu chamber dismissively, I believe the next president should take social and economic studies and their use in governing the country under his or her wing and become the patron of creating Estonia's future convention, Juhan Kivirähk writes.

18.08.26 OPINION ... The economy does not grow if we ourselves consistently pound our business environment into the mud and proclaim to the world that there is no point in investing in Estonia, writes Erkki Keldo.

18.08.26 OPINION ... When discussing the president's foreign‑policy role, we often use the phrase "introducing Estonia to the world." In the 1990s, that was an understandable goal, but for today's Estonia it is far too modest. The Estonian president now has something much more valuable at their disposal: the diplomatic capital accumulated over decades, writes Karoliina Ainge.

18.08.26 OPINION ... Endless entertainment leads to an ever more simplified culture, and an ever more simplified culture eventually collapses into primitiveness, incompetence and infantilism — inevitably producing a society that can no longer cope with itself, writes Maarja Vaino.

18.08.26 OPINION ... A punishment for a crime does not need to be light or harsh — it needs to be effective. Estonia's past success does not mean we can continue with an unchanged penal policy, writes Mari‑Liis Sööt.

17.08.26 OPINION ... The spread of artificial intelligence and automation does not necessarily mean that human labor will simply disappear; rather, it shifts to areas where using humans remains cheaper or more flexible than using machines, writes Aivo Vaske.

15.08.26 OPINION ... By allowing Yabloko to participate in the State Duma elections and failing to anticipate its rise in popularity, Vladimir Putin's administration has confirmed that it does not understand the people it governs, writes Anton Aleksejev.

14.08.26 OPINION ... When Tallinn decides how many traffic lanes to build, it is effectively choosing whether the city functions as a gathering place or a corridor for people passing between destinations elsewhere, Indrek Ibrus writes.

14.08.26 OPINION ... Reaching Scandinavian levels of crisis resilience is possible only by making smart choices, write Georg-Henri Kaup, Emilia Muuga and Jaanika Puusalu.

13.08.26 OPINION ... The parties participating in the political performance are cogs in a totalitarian system; real opposition in Russia has either been physically eliminated or driven into exile abroad, writes Argo Ideon.

12.08.26 OPINION ... Estonia's government has failed to attract foreign investment. Companies are choosing our neighbors instead. Now we cannot even distribute major investment support because there are simply no investors, Andrus Kaarelson writes.

12.08.26 OPINION ... We asked Estonia's top politicians — leaders of the small coalition and the large opposition, as well as would‑be presidential candidates — what they think about the solar eclipse and whether it will bring anything good or bad to Estonia.

12.08.26 OPINION ... Higher taxes, more debt and weak economic growth all at once begs the question whether Estonia's chosen policies are actually working, Lauri Laats writes.

11.08.26 OPINION ... If universal health insurance is not genuinely set as a goal, it will not be achieved. But if it is set as a goal, the rest becomes much easier, because the solutions already exist, writes Allan Eichenbaum.

10.08.26 OPINION ... It is entirely possible that by announcing a substantive but overall marginal shift in its threat assessment, the United States wants to influence Europe's war‑policy decisions, and at the same time is presenting an honest and sincere intelligence estimate. One does not exclude the other, notes Meelis Oidsalu.

10.08.26 OPINION ... While the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral's past cannot be changed, its future lies first and foremost in the hands of Estonia's Orthodox Christians, writes Archbishop Urmas Viilma.

10.08.26 OPINION ... The pipes of Tbilisi's Rike Park, whose demolition began in Georgia this August, were controversial, expensive, unfinished, politically charged — but they were symbolic, writes Arnold Rutto.