| Mart Laar | |
|---|---|
| Laar during an EPP summit in 2010 | |
| Prime Minister of Estonia | |
| In office March 25, 1999 – January 28, 2002 |
|
| Preceded by | Mart Siimann |
| Succeeded by | Siim Kallas |
| In office October 21, 1992 – November 8, 1994 |
|
| Preceded by | Tiit Vähi (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Andres Tarand |
| Minister of Defence | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 6 April 2011 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 22, 1960 Viljandi, Estonia |
| Political party | Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica |
| Alma mater | University of Tartu |
| Nickname(s) | Mõmmibeebi (Babybear)[1] |
Mart Laar (born April 22, 1960) is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes.[2] He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002,[3] and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica. Mart Laar is credited with having brought about Estonia’s rapid economic development in the 1990s.[4]
On 6 April 2011, Mart Laar became Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.[5]
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Mart Laar was born in Viljandi. He studied history at the University of Tartu and graduated in 1983, he received his Master's degree in Philosophy from the same university in 1995 and his Doctorate in 2005. Laar worked as a history teacher in Tallinn, and was the past presidents of Council of Historians of the Foundation of the Estonia Inheritance, the Society for the Preservation of Estonia History and the Estonian Students' Society. As a professional historian Laar has written many books on Estonian and Soviet history, among them his book War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944–1956 a work about the Forest Brothers anti-Soviet resistance movement.
Laar's political career began when he became a member of the conservative Pro Patria Union party (which later merged with the more technocratic Res Publica Party in 2006). He was elected prime minister by the Riigikogu on 21 October 1992, launching what were perhaps the most thorough economic reforms in the post-Soviet space.[6]
In the 1994 no-confidence vote Laar lost the office due to several scandals after which some members of the coalition withdrew their support to the Prime minister.[7] The scandals included the aspects of an arms deal contract with Israel; disagreements about political allies in the opposition, and the sale of banknotes in the amount of 2.3 billion Soviet rubles,[8] withdrawn from circulation during the Estonian monetary reform of 1992, to the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by Laar's associates at an Estonian company, Maag, which was done without consulting the Estonian Parliament.[9][10][11][12]
Five years later, in 1999, Laar returned to the post, with his main policy goals being to pull the economy out of a slump and lead the country toward the European Union. He remained in the post until he stepped down in 2002.
Laar’s reforms are referred to as the most thorough in the region and are occasionally used as a model for other transitions. The contributions to the study of transitions made by the Estonian reforms are often categorized as mainly three: lustration, economic reforms and geopolitical reorientation.[13]
Estonia benefited from hindsight, in that its transition came two years after the transitions in the other former Soviet satellites of Central Europe. Estonia was able to implement many of their lessons while seemingly avoiding pitfalls.[14] Three innovations to the study of economic transitions stand out:
The geopolitical reorientation of Estonia was followed by changes in international economic relations. Estonia went from near total dependence on the Soviet Union for trade before 1991[17] to a large decoupling of trade with Russia by 2007, Russia being about 9% of its total trade (4th largest trade partner). Since 2004, Estonia is a full member of both the European Union and NATO. In 2007, the EU accounted for 70% of Estonia's exports and 78% of its imports, while the share of the CIS countries were accordingly 11% and 13%.[18]
Trade with countries of the former Soviet Union, mainly with Russia and fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania, made up about a quarter of Estonian foreign trade in 2007.[18]
The results of the radical reforms have been recognized by Transparency International (which ranked Estonia the least corrupt country in the post-communist region), the Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal (whose index qualified Estonia as the most economically free in all of Europe), the United Nations Development Program (whose Human Development Index measured Estonia’s rapid rise in such quality-of-life parameters as education, health, income and environment), and the Cato Institute, which awarded Laar the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2006.[19]
The Acton Institute awarded Dr. Laar their Faith & Freedom Award on October 24, 2007.
The World Bank's Doing Business project has several times recognized Estonia as the top reformer in improving the business environment. Estonia is currently ranked 17 (of 178 economies) on the ease of doing business index.
Mart Laar has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO). He is also a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.[20]
The House of Terror Museum in Hungary has given Mart Laar the Sándor Petöfi Award for his contributions to investigating the crimes of communism.[21]
Laar has been involved in assisting and counseling other democratic activists and reformers in the region and beyond, including in Yugoslavia (before 2000), Moldova, Ukraine (before 2004), Mexico (after its own transition in 2000) and Cuba (the Miami-Dade city council in Florida enacted a "Mart Laar Day" in 2003). Together with Václav Havel, Filip Dimitrov, Árpád Göncz, Petr Pithart, Vytautas Landsbergis, Patricio Aylwin and other transition leaders, he participates in the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba.
Laar is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.
In 2003, Laar received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his contributions to the development of the electronic systems in Estonia.
After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, Laar became advisor to the country's President Mikheil Saakashvili and assisted his government in carrying out radical liberal reforms.
In September 2006, Laar announced that he will come out of political retirement to run for the candidacy for Prime Minister of the new Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica party.
In January 2007, it was announced that Mart Laar would become a Mont Pelerin Society member.
On 26 May 2007 he was elected a Chairman of the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica.
In 1994, the Estonian Newspaper Association declared Laar the Year's Press Friend. This was the first time this award was given; since that, it has been a yearly occurrence.[22]
Interestingly, in 2001, Laar was given the complementary award and titled the Year's Press Enemy.[23]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tiit Vähi |
Prime Minister of Estonia 1992–1994 |
Succeeded by Andres Tarand |
| Preceded by Mart Siimann |
Prime Minister of Estonia 1999–2002 |
Succeeded by Siim Kallas |
| Preceded by Jaak Aaviksoo |
Defence Minister of Estonia 2011–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
|
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