Like their cousins the Finns, Estonians are a famously reserved people, but, even so, the country’s finance minister must have struggled just a little when he explained recently to his fellow citizens why they needn’t worry too much about the fate of their contribution to the Eurozone bailout fund (the EFSF):

“I would maintain that the money cannot disappear. European countries simply do not abandon their commitments. If one of the worst-case scenarios were to materialize, the commitments would still remain standing. They can be extended, or some of the conditions can be changed, but I do not believe that government bonds can be written off. “

Whether they believed that nonsense or not, members of Estonia’s parliament appear set to go along:

[T]he Centre Party’s Deniss Boroditsh, said Estonia’s contribution – an estimated 2 billion euros for a country with a 2010 GDP of 17.85 billion euros – is inevitable. “There is no good solution. We can only choose between a bad and worse option,” said Boroditsh.

Meanwhile, from across the border come helpful comments from Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin:

MOSCOW — European leaders grappling with the eurozone debt crisis have an unsolvable problem that will lead to economic decline and a loss of manufacturing power to rivals, one of Russia’s most powerful businessmen said on Tuesday.
“If I was a politician in Europe, I would commit suicide,” said Vladimir Potanin, who owns a 30-percent stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer.

A hemlock & ouzo cocktail might do the trick. You could call it the euro.

Potanin continued:

“There is really such a big difference between the interests of different countries, I simply do not understand how you can match the interests of Germany and Greece,” said Potanin, who is ranked by Forbes as Russia’s fourth richest man with a fortune of US$17.8 billion.

He’s right. You can’t.