The city council of Estonia’s mostly Russian-speaking northeastern border town of Narva has elected the Estonian Centre Party’s Jaan Toots as the city’s new mayor, ERR reports. Toots replaced Katri Raik, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote after one city councillor defected from Raik’s Respect alliance to the Centre Party’s coalition partner, Plan B, Põhjarannik reported. Earlier, Plan B’s Urbo Vaarmann was elected chairman of the city council, replacing Raik’s pro-Russian coalition partner, Mihhail Stalnuhhin. The city council has been locked in a protracted power struggle since April 2026.
Meanwhile, a power struggle in another town in northeastern Estonia, Kohtla-Järve, has led to the ouster of the Centre Party’s Max Kaur from the post of mayor, ERR reported. Kohtla-Järve’s city council elected Evelyn Danilov as the new mayor with support from councillors representing both Estonia’s major parties and the pro-Russian Together (KOOS). Kohtla-Järve is the only municipality in Estonia where Together is represented in the municipal council. According to Põhjarannik’s editor-in-chief, Erik Gamzejev, Danilov is associated with the late local oligarch, Nikolai Ossipenko, ERR reports.