Recent Activities
Laar has been involved in assisting and counseling other democratic activists and reformers in the region and beyond, including in Yugoslavia (before 2000), Moldova, Ukraine (before 2004), Mexico (after its own transition in 2000) and Cuba (the Miami-Dade city council in Florida enacted a "Mart Laar Day" in 2003). Together with Václav Havel, Filip Dimitrov, Árpád Göncz, Petr Pithart, Vytautas Landsbergis, Patricio Aylwin and other transition leaders, he participates in the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba.
Laar is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.
In 2003, Laar received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his contributions to the development of the electronic systems in Estonia.
After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, Laar became advisor to the country's President Mikheil Saakashvili and assisted his government in carrying out radical liberal reforms.
In September 2006, Laar announced that he will come out of political retirement to run for the candidacy for Prime Minister of the new Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica party.
In January 2007, it was announced that Mart Laar would become a Mont Pelerin Society member.
On 26 May 2007 he was elected a Chairman of the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica.
On 18 February 2012 Mart Laar suffered from a stroke and stepped down as Defence Minister three months later.
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