The irony of politics is that prizes are no longer handed out retrospectively, but also with a view to promoting and pushing through further political action and creating useful mileage through useless incentives. Who really believes that Ansip and Kallas are being given their respective European awards in hindsight for what has been done? My guess is that no stick and all carrot is designed to use Estonia as a model state to bring other states in line with EU interests, which also means keeping the international peace and going the way of big organizations such as the UN, Amnesty International and the Global Masonic army of Secret ritual Lodgebearers and other thirty three degree wingnuts.

If they use something like, what you described Maxim, if this was all a political play like you mention....then the UN would be one of the saddest bunch of people I would not care to know.

I am anxiously awaiting the moment that the UN mandates that the US of A must become officially bilingual.