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| Country | Estonia | | | Flag |  | | | Capital | name: Tallinn geographic coordinates: 59 26 N, 24 43 E time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October | | | Population | 1,299,371 (July 2009 est.) | | | GMT | +2 | | | Location | Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, between Latvia and Russia
see map | | | Area | total: 45,226 sq km land: 43,211 sq km water: 2,015 sq km note: includes 1,520 islands in the Baltic Sea | | | Ethnic groups | Estonian 67.9%, Russian 25.6%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Belarusian 1.3%, Finn 0.9%, other 2.2% (2000 census) | | | Religions | Evangelical Lutheran 13.6%, Orthodox 12.8%, other Christian (including Methodist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal) 1.4%, unaffiliated 34.1%, other and unspecified 32%, none 6.1% (2000 census) | | | Languages | Estonian (official) 67.3%, Russian 29.7%, other 2.3%, unknown 0.7% (2000 census) | | | Government type | parliamentary republic | | | National holiday | Independence Day, 24 February (1918); note - 24 February 1918 was the date Estonia declared its independence from Soviet Russia; 20 August 1991 was the date it declared its independence from the Soviet Union | | | Constitution | adopted 28 June 1992 | | | Legal system | based on civil law system; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations | | | Background | After centuries of Danish, Swedish, German, and Russian rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcibly incorporated into the USSR in 1940 - an action never recognized by the US - it regained its freedom in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the last Russian troops left in 1994, Estonia has been free to promote economic and political ties with Western Europe. It joined both NATO and the EU in the spring of 2004. | | Internet country code | .ee | |
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