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full screen Arnold Rüütel in 2006. Photo: Timur Nisametdinov/AP/Nipa/TT
Arnold Rüütel, Estonia’s last communist leader during the Soviet era and the country’s second president after independence, has died.
Rüütel was elected in 1983 as Chairman of the Supreme Council of the then Soviet Republic, a position he later used to prepare Estonia for independence from the Soviet Union.
After Estonia regained its independence, in 2001 he was elected President of Estonia after Lennart Meri. Rüüter held the presidency for five years and steered Estonia into NATO and the EU.
Arnold Rüütel was 96 years old.