When Mr Laar's right-of-centre coalition took power two years ago, it was determined to reform the machinery of government.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

Instead, Mr Laar has paid a lot of attention to swanky futuristic projects.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

If, besides all that, Mr Laar can get his government to bring off some of the hardest pending reforms, his country may yet match its well-polished reputation.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

Some view Mr Laar, who is fluent in several Western European languages, heads the Cabinet, and in whose meetings absent ministers could participate via the internet, as an ideal symbol of Estonia's integration with the West.

BBC: Estonia's power vacuum

But Mr Laar, a talkative man in a taciturn nation, sometimes seems better at burnishing his country's image to foreigners than at connecting with his own people, many of whom think of him as glib, even slippery.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

At the 2003 capitalist ball Mart Laar, a former prime minister of Estonia, was given a special award to celebrate the fact that, in 1994, his country had become the first in Europe to introduce a flat tax, of 26%.

ECONOMIST: The impact of central Europe's tax revolution

In addition, and without implying they would necessarily agree with the views expressed here, the author would like to thank: Lajos Bokros, Robert Braun, Martin Bruncko, Robert Cooper, Pavol Demes, Jeremy Druker, Michel Foucher, Andrew Gardner, Heather Grabbe, Charles Grant, Istvan Gyarmati, David Kral, Mart Laar, Edward Lucas, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Jiri Pehe, Sandra Pralong, Olli Rehn, Gyorgy Schopflin, James Sherr, Pirkka Tapiola, Emma Udwin and Alexander Vondra.

ECONOMIST: Sources and acknowledgments