The Estonian Ministry of Justice has refused to translate the laws into Russian in 2009 explaining that the lack of finance is the reason, EER Uudised reports. This means that nearly 400,000 citizens will not have access to the legal acts in their native language.
      
      According to the Ministry of Justice, they now translate the laws into English only. “Due to the budget cut in 2008 and 2009 the Ministry does not have enough financial means for texts` translation”, as the department’s press-secretary Diana Kommus says.
      
      However, DELFI marks that translating the laws into Russian practically stopped in 2006, when it became a task of the Ministry of Justice. Before 2006 the laws were translated by Riigi Teataja publisher.
      
      Estonia has been several times criticised over its policy towards the Russian-speaking population by the EU and international human rights organizations. Nevertheless, the Estonian officials insist they have equal language politics for all citizens.
      
      Russian-speaking citizens make up to 25% of the Estonian population.
      
      Source - lenta.ru