Estonia is a member of the European Union and the eurozone and is an advanced economy, according to the IMF.

Before the Second World War Estonia's economy was based on agriculture, but there was a significant knowledge sector (with Tartu known for scientific contributions) and a growing industrial sector, similar to Finland. Products such as butter, milk and cheese were widely known on the western European markets. Main markets were Germany and United Kingdom, and only 3% of all commerce was with the neighbouring USSR. The USSR's forcible annexation of Estonia in 1940 and the ensuing Nazi and Soviet destruction during World War II crippled the Estonian economy. Post-war Sovietization of life continued with the integration of Estonia's economy and industry into the USSR's centrally planned structure. Estonia and Finland had about the same GDP per capita before Estonia became a planned economy. By 1987, the capitalist Finland's GDP per capita was 14,370 USD and the communist Estonia's GDP per capita was around 2,000 USD.

Estonia ⁱ/ɨsˈtoʊniə/ (Estonian: Eesti), officially the Republic of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Vabariik), is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia (343 km), and to the east by Lake Peipus and the Russian Federation (338.6 km). Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia covers 45,227 km² (17,462 sq mi), and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. The Estonians are a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is closely related to Finnish.

Estonia is a democratic parliamentary republic divided into 15 counties. The capital and largest city is Tallinn. With a population of 1.29 million, it is one of the least-populous members of the European Union, Eurozone and NATO. Estonia has the highest GDP per person among former Soviet republics. Estonia is listed as a "High-Income Economy" by the World Bank and as an "advanced economy" by the International Monetary Fund; the country is an OECD member. The United Nations lists Estonia as a developed country with a Human Development Index of "Very High". The country is also ranked highly for press freedom, economic freedom, democracy and political freedom and education.

Mart Laar (born April 22, 1960) is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, 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.

On 6 April 2011, Mart Laar became Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip.

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.

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb (born 1 April 1968 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 4 April 2008 to 22 June 2011. From 2004 to 2008 he was a Member of the European Parliament with the European People's Party (EPP) and a professor at the College of Europe.

In 1986, Stubb graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida and graduated two years later from the Gymnasiet Lärkan in Helsinki. After completing his military service, he won a golf scholarship to Furman University in South Carolina, where he intended to study for a business degree. He later switched to political science, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1993. The following year he gained a Diploma in French Language and Civilisation from the Sorbonne in Paris. In addition to his native languages Swedish and Finnish (as a Swedish-speaking Finn), Stubb speaks English, French and German.

In 1995 he gained a Master of Arts in European Affairs from the College of Europe, Belgium.He went on to pursue a PhD in international politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a researcher at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and then at the Finnish Academy from 1997 to 1999. In 1997 he also started his work as a columnist, which he continues today. Stubb gained a PhD from the London School of Economics in 1999.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈtoːmɑs ˈhendrik ˈilves]; born 26 December 1953) is the fourth and current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament. He was elected to the post by an electoral college on 23 September 2006 and his term as President began on 9 October 2006.

Ilves was born in Stockholm, Sweden; his parents were Estonian refugees. He grew up in the United States in Leonia, New Jersey and graduated from Leonia High School in 1972 as valedictorian. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia University in 1976 and a master's degree in the same subject from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. In addition to his native Estonian, he is fluent in English, German and Spanish.

During the 1980s, Ilves worked as a journalist for Radio Free Europe and became actively involved in politics prior to Estonia's independence in 1991. Ilves subsequently became Ambassador of Estonia to the United States in 1993; he also served as Ambassador to Canada and Mexico for several years.