Schmidt was just the best funded advisor on privatisation methods in Estonia Treuhand Ost Beratung financed e g Finnish numbered fax machines and other support USAID and the EU PHARE project provided counterbalancing advice which took into account the voucher system that had been instituted in Estonia which was alien to Schmidt s German experience Indeed in opposing the first public offerings for shares in the manner of Margaret Thatcher s government in Britain Schmidt commented that such methods equated to the reintroduction of communism When majority stakes were sold in former state enterprises according to the classic German method especially to entities associated with the state enterprises managers questions were asked as to whether the majority shareholders were unduly profiting by not treating their part subsidiaries at arm s length Schmidt should not be credited with the mixed method of privatisation instituted in Estonia