Viljandi city government’s refusal to allow the Estonian LGBT Association to unfurl a rainbow-coloured fabric in Vabaduse Square on 1 June is not an act of child protection – it is an act of civic exclusion.

Viljandi, a town of about 17,000 people in southern Estonia, is not some cultural backwater. It is one of Estonia’s historic cultural centres, home to the Viljandi Folk Music Festival, one of the country’s best-known cultural events, and the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy. It is a town whose public identity is built on music, creativity, openness and cultural self-confidence. That makes the city government’s decision all the more jarring.

Continue reading Editorial: Viljandi’s rainbow ban is not child protection – it is civic exclusion at Estonian World.

At the 2026 Venice Biennale, Merike Estna transforms the Estonian pavilion into an open studio, inviting visitors to watch painting unfold as labour, care and performance.

When visitors step into Estonia’s pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, they will not find painting in its most familiar form: finished, framed and fixed. Instead, they will find an artist at work.

Merike Estna, one of Estonia’s most distinctive contemporary painters, represents the country with The House of the Leaking Sky, an exhibition that unfolds over the course of the biennale. Beginning with blank canvases, Estna paints in public, allowing the works to emerge before visitors’ eyes over several months.

Continue reading Estonia’s Venice pavilion turns painting into a living act at Estonian World.

A group of prominent Estonian technology entrepreneurs has urged the government to halt planned forestry reforms, warning that Estonia risks over-logging its forests, weakening nature protection and leaving society to carry the long-term costs.

A group of leading figures from Estonia’s technology sector has issued a sharply worded public letter criticising planned changes to the country’s forestry and nature conservation rules, arguing that the proposals risk placing short-term industrial interests above the long-term health of Estonia’s forests, economy and international reputation.

The letter, signed by entrepreneurs including Martin Villig, Kristjan Lepik, Kaarel Kotkas, Sten Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus, Markus Villig, Ahti Heinla, Tõnu Runnel, Kadri Tuisk, Triin Hertmann, Ragnar Sass and others, calls on the government to stop the legislative process and commission an independent long-term economic impact analysis.

Continue reading Estonian tech leaders warn forests are being sacrificed for short-term profit at Estonian World.

04 April 2026 – 10 May 2026

Not sure where to be this week? Every week, in partnership with Gamma, we present a hand-picked selection of the five most compelling events taking place in and around Tallinn – it’s time to plan your week with purpose.

“Halo” Dance Performance

Niguliste museum, Tallinn

Tuesday 5 May, Thursday 7 May and Friday 8 May, from 7pm

Halo is a dance performance born from a creative dialogue between choreographer Teet Kask and musician-composer Kristjan Kannukene.

Part of the innovative dance series Elutantsud igavikule – inspired by the timeless message of the famous Dance of Death, created in the workshop of Bernt Notke – the piece takes one of life’s most avoided subjects and looks it directly in the eye.

Continue reading Your Tallinn hit list: the top 5 events this week at Estonian World.

Estonia is to build a rare drone and defence technology testing laboratory in Tallinn, in a move aimed at helping Baltic and Nordic companies bring battlefield-relevant systems into production more quickly.

Metrosert, the state-owned applied research centre and national metrology institute, said the nearly €7 million facility would test two increasingly important features of modern defence technology: whether equipment can withstand electronic interference, and how visible it is to radar.

A rare testing capability for Europe

The laboratory will be built at Metrosert’s drone technologies testing centre in Haabersti, Tallinn, and is expected to open in spring 2027.

Continue reading Estonia to build a €7m drone testing lab at Estonian World.

Estonia has ranked third in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, confirming its place among the world’s freest media environments, even as journalists face online harassment, economic pressure and growing restrictions on access to public information.

The annual index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, places Estonia behind Norway and the Netherlands. Among Estonia’s neighbours, Sweden ranked fifth, Finland sixth, Lithuania 15th and Latvia 17th. Russia, by contrast, remained near the bottom of the index, ranking 172nd out of 180 countries and territories.

Estonia has slipped one place from 2025, when it ranked second.

Continue reading Estonia ranks third in 2026 World Press Freedom Index at Estonian World.

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been awarded one of Japan’s highest honours, recognising his contribution to music and the cultural links he has helped forge between Japan, Estonia and the wider world.

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been awarded Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, one of the country’s highest honours, in the Japanese government’s Spring 2026 Imperial Decorations.

The award, conferred by the Cabinet Office of Japan, recognises Järvi’s outstanding contribution to music and his role in strengthening cultural ties between Japan and the international community. The decoration will be formally presented at a ceremony in Estonia later this year, with details to be announced.

Continue reading Paavo Järvi receives Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun at Estonian World.

Tallinn’s Old Town should be the city’s jewel; instead, too much of it feels hollowed out: overpriced, underused and increasingly outshone by Vilnius.

Spring – not fool’s spring, late winter or a mere thaw – is blowing through the streets of Tallinn’s Old Town. Terrace season is back, and the air seems fresher and clearer after the long winter fug.

But all is not well in the picturesque corners and quiet cafés of the Old Town. Businesses, even long-standing bars and cafés, have closed; empty premises dot the cobbled streets. Instead of elegant boutiques, there are souvenir shops selling generic Chinese tat.

Continue reading James Oates: what is to be done with Tallinn’s Old Town? at Estonian World.

Kersti Kaljulaid, Estonia’s former head of state, has been removed as president of the Estonian Olympic Committee, or EOK, after a bruising vote of no confidence that exposed deep divisions inside the country’s sporting establishment.

At an extraordinary general assembly held on Monday at the A. Le Coq Arena in Tallinn, 61 members of the committee voted to remove the former Estonian president from office. Fifty members voted against the motion and three ballots were declared invalid. Of the EOK’s 123 members, 114 were present – meaning that 58 votes were required for the motion to pass.

The result brings an abrupt end to Kaljulaid’s short tenure at the helm of the committee, to which she was elected in autumn 2024.

Continue reading Kersti Kaljulaid ousted as Estonian Olympic Committee president after bitter revolt at Estonian World.

Four days, 35 concert nights, thousands of music lovers – and a city briefly remade by sound; from 9–12 April, Tallinn hosted the 18th edition of Tallinn Music Week, the international festival and conference that brought 203 artists from 37 countries to the Estonian capital, drawing more than 22,000 visitors.

The festival spilled across Tallinn’s stages, clubs and concert halls, from Telliskivi Creative City to the Old Town and the Rotermann Quarter. Its programme moved restlessly between genres – folk and metal, jazz and digipop, club music and contemporary classical – turning the city into a walkable map of new music.

Continue reading Pictures: Tallinn Music Week 2026 at Estonian World.

27 April 2026 – 03 May 2026

Not sure where to be this week? Every week, in partnership with Gamma, we present a hand-picked selection of the five most compelling events taking place in and around Tallinn – it’s time to plan your week with purpose.

Tallinn Bla Bla Language Exchange

Gruuv, Suur-Karja 4, Tallinn

Tuesday 28 April, from 7.30pm

BlaBla Language Exchange is less classroom, more cheerful social whirl: a relaxed mingle where locals and internationals meet, chat, practise languages and generally have a good time.

Continue reading Your Tallinn hit list: the top 5 events this week at Estonian World.

The HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” told the world, in graphic detail, what really happened in the worst nuclear catastrophe humankind has ever faced; Estonian World brings you a first-hand account by an Estonian Chernobyl veteran who was forced by the Soviet authorities into the disaster zone to help with the clean-up efforts.*

“Chernobyl”, the critically acclaimed miniseries produced by the American network Home Box Office and Britain’s Sky, has been seen around the world. For the first time, a dramatisation of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe brought the truth about what happened on 26 April 1986 in Ukraine to hundreds of thousands of people.

Continue reading Estonian Chernobyl veteran recalls the Soviet lies, radiation and clean-up after the disaster at Estonian World.

Estonia, long ranked among the European countries with the widest gender pay gaps, recorded its narrowest gap on record in 2025, with women earning on average 12.2 per cent less per hour than men, according to new data from Statistics Estonia.

The gap shrank by one percentage point compared with the previous year and has fallen by 10.7 percentage points over the past 15 years. Average gross hourly pay stood at €13 for men and €11.4 for women.

Krista Vaikmets, a leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, the country’s official statistics agency, said the latest figure marked the smallest gender pay gap ever recorded in the country.

Continue reading Estonia records its lowest-ever gender pay gap at Estonian World.

As Moldova moves closer to the European Union, an online course created with Estonian support is helping students, officials and civil society understand what accession would really involve.

Backed by Estonia, the online course brought together 350 Moldovan students, officials and experts to understand what joining the EU really means – and to learn from Estonia’s experience.

The halls of the Moldova State University library are hushed, carrying the scent of old paper and dust. It is a stark contrast to the bustle and noise of one of the old city’s main streets outside.

Tucked away in a corner sits Nichita Crivonosov.

Continue reading How Estonia is helping Moldova prepare for the EU at Estonian World.

International defence projects involving Estonian companies and institutions have secured more than €700 million in European Union funding under the latest round of the European Defence Fund, highlighting Estonia’s growing weight in Europe’s defence industry.

A total of 57 international projects were selected for funding in the 2025 calls, with the EU allocating more than €1 billion overall. Of those, 26 projects involve Estonian partners. Together, those projects account for more than half of the total funding awarded in the round. The value of the work packages going directly to Estonian companies exceeds €28 million.

The Estonian defence ministry has also played a role in the outcome, co-financing 12 of the successful projects with more than €1.5 million.

Continue reading The EU defence fund awards more than €700m to projects involving Estonia at Estonian World.

Estonia’s population fell for the second year in a row in 2025, as low birth rates, more deaths and a sharp reversal in migration pushed the country’s numbers down by 9,250 people.

On 1 January 2026, Estonia’s population stood at 1,360,745, according to revised figures published by Statistics Estonia. The decline underlines a familiar but deepening problem for the country: fewer children are being born, the population is ageing, and migration is no longer cushioning the fall.

Last year, Estonia recorded 9,240 births and 15,688 deaths. At the same time, 15,212 people immigrated and 18,014 emigrated, meaning net migration turned negative for the first time in more than a decade.

Continue reading Estonia’s population shrinks again at Estonian World.

The Estonian defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, says supplies of HIMARS and Javelin ammunition have been put on hold, with Washington unable to say when deliveries might resume.

The United States has paused key ammunition deliveries to Estonia for at least as long as the conflict with Iran continues, in a move that underlines how instability in the Middle East is beginning to ripple across Europe’s defence planning.

Estonia’s defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, said he received confirmation of the halt during a phone call on Monday with the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth. According to Pevkur, the affected deliveries include ammunition for the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and Javelin anti-tank weapons – both central to Estonia’s military preparedness and broader Nato deterrence posture on the alliance’s eastern flank.

Continue reading Iran conflict – the US pauses arms deliveries to Estonia at Estonian World.

20 April 2026 – 26 April 2026

Not sure where to be this week? Every week, in partnership with Gamma, we present a hand-picked selection of the five most compelling events taking place in and around Tallinn – it’s time to plan your week with purpose.

Ground & Reset: a sip-and-paint experience

Kartul, Kopli 16, Tallinn

Tuesday 21 April, from 7pm

Ground & Reset is an Earth Day-inspired evening that starts where most paint nights don’t: outside.

The experience begins with a short walk in nature, giving you a moment to pause, breathe and properly arrive before picking up a brush.

Continue reading Your Tallinn hit list: the top 5 events – week 16 at Estonian World.

Estonia will not allow Slovak prime minister Robert Fico to use its airspace for a flight to Moscow to attend Russia’s 9 May military parade, foreign minister Margus Tsahkna has said.

“Fico will once again not receive permission to use Estonian airspace for a flight to Moscow to attend the 9 May parade, an event aimed at glorifying the aggressor. We denied this last year, and the same principle applies now,” Tsahkna said.

He added that Estonia’s position is clear: no country should be allowed to use Estonian airspace to strengthen ties with Russia while Moscow continues its war against Ukraine and undermines European security.

Continue reading Estonia bars airspace for Fico’s Moscow trip at Estonian World.

Fourteen cases and unfamiliar pronunciation: how the Keeleklikk language-learning platform helped a Swede and an Italian master Estonian with confidence.

This article was published in collaboration with Keeleklikk.

It is often said that Estonian is a difficult language for foreigners to learn because of its complexity. The reasons most commonly given are its 14 cases and the pronunciation of its special characters.

Even so, many foreigners have found the motivation to learn Estonian. Reflecting on their language-learning journeys, both the Swede Andreas Onkel and the Italian Thomas Oberlechner say that, without the Keeleklikk platform, they would not even have known how to begin.

Continue reading Keeleklikk: the free platform helping foreigners learn Estonian at Estonian World.