FOI-R--3990--SE_reducerad

FOI-R--3990--SE
This positive trend, however, came to an end in 2007, with the events
surrounding the relocation of a Russian wartime memorial from the centre of
Tallinn. The nights of rioting are described above, and following the cyberattacks
on Estonia launched from Russian territory there was a noticeable
worsening of bilateral relations which also affected bilateral trade. In 2007
Russian FDI in Estonia fell by EUR 58.6 million on 2006 levels, and the volume
of bilateral trade decreased by 8 per cent in one year. However, it is worth noting
that Estonian exports to Russia saw a slight increase in 2007.
The final phase of Estonian-Russian economic relations, as identified by the
Estonian writers Karmo Tüür and Raivo Vare, is the normalization of trade
relations following the events of 2007. Diagrams 2 and 3 show that bilateral trade
has been improving since its nadir in 2009, which was primarily related to the
world financial and economic crisis. One interesting observation is that since
2007, with the exception of 2009, the trade balance between Estonia and Russia
seems to have reversed. Estonia was running sizable trade deficits with Russia
before 2007, but it now has a trade surplus, in excess of EUR 800 million in 2012.
The dip in trade attributed to political tensions was minor compared to the hit
that bilateral trade took during the global economic crisis. In 2009 trade between
Russia and Estonia declined by 27.5 per cent. 149 Russia’s trade relations with
other European countries saw similar trends. 150 It is therefore factually incorrect
to say that the dip in trade was caused by the so-called Bronze Night.
3.9.2 The Current Trading Environment
As is noted above, Estonia’s accession to the EU was a great facilitator of
Estonian-Russian trade and economic relations. Since May 2004, Estonia has
been part of the single European market.
Russia is among Estonia’s top five trading partners. After the economic crisis
and the resulting dip in trade in 2009, trade with Russia grew at a higher than
average rate, and as of 2011 Russia has risen to third place as a destination for
Estonia’s exports and in terms of the total volume of trade. In 2011, trade with
Russia made up 9.6 per cent of Estonia’s total trade. Nonetheless, Russia’s share
is several times smaller than that of the European Union (EU 27), the eurozone
countries, smaller even than the share of Finland or Sweden and only barely
higher than that of Latvia. 151
149 Ibid., p. 254
150 Ibid., p. 255
151 Ibid., p. 259.
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