Estonia is overcoming the crisis faster than Latvia

Estonia has better weathered the storm of the crisis than Latvia, writes the Latvian daily Latvijas Avīze: "We are obliged to draw the sad conclusion that in twenty years the Latvians have not managed to adequately govern their state. We've tried everything: civil committees and coalitions, national elements, relentless openness, liberal and conservative currents, but all these have done is to wreak havoc, like the two scallywags Laurel and Hardy. ... And now all of a sudden Estonia's former prime minister Mart Laar speaks up: Estonia has balanced its economy and lived more thriftily, it has built up a stable banking system that has remained protected from Russian money, and corruption is not as widespread in Estonia as it is here. In Latvia corruption came from the banks with their dirty money, and from there it took contol over the economy and then politics. By contrast Estonia placed more value on the stability of its currency than on dubious investments from some island or another."

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