ESTONIA: Russia and Estonia discuss re-location of WW2 memorial

A delegation of Russian lawmakers arrived in Estonia on Monday (April 30) in a bid to defuse escalating tensions following unrest sparked by the removal of a Soviet war memorial. In Tallinn, the Russian delegation led by Leonid Slutsky, vice chairman of the Duma's foreign affairs committee, met with Estonian lawmakers and police. "We think this provocation has just been instigated by the present government before and after the March 4th elections," Slutzky said at a news conference. Riots broke out in Tallinn on Thursday (April 27) when police clashed with Russian-speaking Estonians protesting the removal of a World War II grave site of Russian soldiers and a statue commemorating the Red Army. One man was stabbed to death, more than 150 injured and some 1,000 people detained in three nights of rioting -- the worst violence since Estonia won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The two countries have traded harsh words, with Russian officials speaking of "blasphemous" acts against the memory of Red Army soldiers, and Estonia accusing Russian media of spreading lies about the situation. One of the members of the Russian delegation, Nikolai Kovalyov, made clear he and other members of the State Duma, Russia's lower parliament house, blame the Estonian government for the uproar. Estonia's Russians -- less than one-third of the country's 1.3 million people -- regard the Bronze Soldier monument as a shrine to Red Army soldiers who fought Nazi Germany, but ethnic Estonians consider it a painful reminder of hardships during the half-century of Soviet rule. Viktor Sviestunov, a Russsian national living in Estonia, said the monument should be left where it is. "Good, good, let him (statue of Red Army soldier) stay here. He will have more peace and quiet here. Over there (in the previous location) he'll be disturbed by souls (people), I'm not saying they're intelligent people. I didn't mind him there," he said. The government justified the move by saying its location near a busy intersection in downtown Tallinn was not a proper place for a war grave. Critics, however, said the government was pandering to Estonian nationalists who wanted the monument removed from the city center. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet blamed Russian media for fueling the unrest by printing what he said was misinformation, including rumors that the memorial was sawed into pieces and that hundreds of ethnic Russians on Estonia's police force had resigned. Estonian officials also accused Russia of failing to provide security around the Estonian Embassy in Moscow, where protesters have staged rallies. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told the Baltic News Service that Estonian diplomats in Moscow were exposed to "psychological terror" and said their access to the embassy was being obstructed by the protesters. The statue is to be officially inaugurated at its new location on May On Tuesday, the Russian lawmakers were set to meet with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Patriarch Cornelius, a representative of Estonia's Orthodox Church.

ITN Source | May 1, 2007

Tags:. .blamed. .sparked. .broke. .bid. .quiet