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EESTI ELU reedel, 29. oktoobril 2021 — Friday, October 29, 2021
Nr. 43
Back to live music with Estonian Music Week’s 2021 festival Estonian Music Week English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Finland walking a political tightrope with Russia Many can still recall the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO) and military operation three years ago within the hundreds of islands offshore from Turku. They targeted buildings on an island belonging to a Russian from which many items of interest related to Finnish national security were seized. Ostensibly the properties were created by Russian com panies involved with real estate and tourism. In 2018 the Airiston Helmi firm owned 17 such properties in the Turku archipelago from which 3.5 million euros were confiscated and two employees detained in the search. It was suspected that citizens of Estonia and Russia were involved in money laun dering and tax fraud. Due to the bad investment climate in Russia, money had to be (and still is) moved out, through legal and other means. Providing this service are tax havens, from which the funds are then re-invested, and the purchase of real estate – such as in Finland. However the properties were fitted with advanced monitoring systems, and satellite communi cations, a helipad and numerous docking facilities including two auxiliary vessels purchased from the Finnish navy – items not necessary for family vacations. While the Finnish investiga tion did not initially uncover any national security threat, it did focus on organized financial crime. However in the context of Russian hybrid warfare capa bilities and possible intentions, the properties are located in the vicinity of key maritime trade routes, submarine telecommu nications cables, the refinery at Naantali and the Finnish naval base and command in Turku. Russian ownership of Finnish real estate became of special interest after the an nexation of Crimea. A report in 2016 indicated that strategically located Russian real estate ownership could hinder mo bilization in the event of a crisis. The largest group of foreign owners are Russians, especially along the Russia-Finland bor der, serving mainly for vacation ing, some owned by Russian
oligarchs such as Putin’s close friends Gennady Timchencko and Boris Rotenberg, who also have acquired Finnish citizen ship. Former veteran diplomat Harri Tiido has commented that Russians continue to show an interest in Finnish real estate, and circuitous methods are used to gain ownership of properties in locations of importance to Finnish national security. Finland is suffering the di lemma of maintaining normal political and economic relations and ensuring mutual invest ments in sectors such as energy. The Russian construction of a reactor in a nuclear power plant and the Finnish involvement in Russian heating firms as well as wind, water and thermal power plants. But the Finnish govern ment knows it must remain vigilant by monitoring all Rus sian activity, including that which could be linked to Russian intelligence services. New Finnish legislation ad dressing these concerns makes it mandatory that the Finnish military approve real estate purchases by foreign entities. But this restriction can be avoided if the purchaser has been able to obtain some EU citizenship from such countries like Cyprus and Malta. Individuals who have invested sufficiently there are eligible to “buy” a “golden passport”. Since 2013, Cyprus has thus earned 1.3 billion euros. But after Al Jazeera’s TV exposure of this, both Malta and Cyprus have tightened regulations, Cyprus even nullifying certain citizenships. However, lately Finnish authorities closely monitoring one Russian inves tor’s real estate holdings within the Saimaa maritime routes – a Russian with dual CypriotRussian citizenship he hadn’t disclosed. The media have also drawn attention to the Russian Pihkva army units, operative against Finland when needed and studying the Finnish language. This particular holding has buildings far larger than some one’s vacation needs (with accommodation for at least 100), a large, deep sea docking facili ty and a helipad built into the protection of a natural horse
Estonia truly continues to grow its global connections as the years go by, especially with the help of music. It’s something that we can all appreciate. And with the 2021 edition of Estonian Music Week, music was a conduit for sharing culture and knowledge between Canada and Estonia. The memorable moments of this festival were abundant, from the screening of Unusta tud rahvaste jälgedes (In the Steps of Forgotten Peoples) to the last note of Beatrice Deer Band at the El Mocambo. For VEMU (the Museum of Estonians Abroad), the orga nizer of the festival, the main focus of the autumn season has been on the Finno-Ugric peoples and the Indigenous peoples of Canada. EMW and its edu cational programming also followed this topic. In a dynamic range of for mats, the festival reiterated what it means to be Estonian in a contemporary context, how our culture is expressed through the diaspora, as well as what being Estonian has meant to people in the past. shoe-shaped rock enclosure. When journalists were filming the location from sea, a BMW appeared on the beach carrying Estonian license plates. It’s been mentioned that the owner of the BMV may be an Estonian resident but need not be of Estonian citizenship. Russian-NATO relations have sunk recently to their lowest level since WWII. Finland, with its quiet participation in Nord Stream 2, is carefully treading an extremely precarious inter national tightrope. Finland for mally describes itself as mili tarily unaligned. This is the traditional stance, highlighted by the Helsinki-Accords in 1975 and the Trump-Putin Helsinki summit in 2018. Finland has seen its power ful, energy-rich neighbour use energy as a control mechanism and Finland is Russia-depen dent on oil and gas. But it has no illusions about Moscow’s historic intentions. It has friendly relations with NATO, has exten sive ties to it and has built probably the strongest defence force among the Nordics. It’s clearly evident that Finnish interests always have to consider Russia’s reaction. Finland’s geo-political circum stances must deal with the here and now of a small country with a looming, historically aggressive neighbour. Finland’s stake in Nord Stream 2, for instance, can be taken as in evitable extensions of reality. LAAS LEIVAT
Photo: Vincent Teetsov
To commence the festival, on October 17th, VEMU and Estonian Music Week virtually presented Collegium Musicale’s documentary film Unustatud rahvaste jälgedes, which per ceptively portrayed the choral compositions of Veljo Tormis and the challenges faced by Finno-Ugric peoples today in maintaining a connection to their cultures. A particularly striking mo ment came early on, when in Estonian National Museum edu cator Anti Lillak’s tour of the museum’s exhibition “Echo of the Urals,” we heard the simi larities between the word for “eye” across Uralic languages. The Uralic language group – which encompasses 25 million speakers of Uralic languages – consists of Samoyedic and Finno-Ugric languages, for which Estonian is part of the Finno-Ugric linguistic branch. The exhibition illustrated fur ther similarities between these cultures by showing homes and possessions from Siberia to the Baltic Sea. Friday night (the 22nd, spon sored by Northern Birch Credit Union) conveyed the Estonian experience through the lens of R&B music. Toronto’s Paradise Theatre was filled with stalwart rhythm sections, trouble-melting chord progressions, and the powerful, radiant singing voices of Kaili Kinnon and Estyr; while Philly Joe’s Jazz Club in Tallinn hosted and filmed Rita Ray’s stellar performance. It was remarkable to hear each of them belt it out, climbing to the top of their registers, and to see the bands pour everything they have into their solos; hammer ing keyboards like bongos and springing on and off fretboards furiously. Noon on Saturday October
23rd brought in the festival’s first-ever kids’ event, replete with boogie-worthy drum beats from drummer Stefan Loebus, vocal sound effects, and colour ful gouache and watercolour illustrations by Laani Heinar, in her and Vincent Teetsov’s pic ture book Pumpkin and Stretch. Children and families traversed a mysterious cave and went around the world through musi cal styles like bossa nova, swing, reggae, and folk. This may well have also been the first time an audience in Tartu College listened to a song about all of the ways you can cook eggs! The final night of the festival, titled “Persevering Languages”, at the El Mocambo (sponsored by festival partner, the Estonian Foundation of Canada), high lighted the mutual appreciation of Indigenous cultures and the cultures of Finno-Ugric peoples. Estonian kannel (zither) masters Duo Ruut, DJ Erik Laar, the vocal ensemble Väike Hellero, and the headliner of the night, Beatrice Deer Band, pulled communities closer together with rhythm, poetry, and melo dy. Once again, the performers in Estonia were hosted and filmed by Philly Joe’s Jazz Club. All of the artists empha sized the continuing power of identity as it extends between the past and the future. One of the most memorable parts of this night was Beatrice Deer’s demonstration of the techniques of Inuit throat singing, which is part of her musical compositions. With her kindness and expertise, she suc cessfully helped a member of the audience brought on-stage to perform throat singing with her. Throughout these perfor (Continued on page 9)
