in the press

April 30, 2007
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Estonia and the Bear
Editorial
Russians rioted in Tallinn and other Estonian cities this weekend, leaving
store fronts shattered, dozens injured and one man dead. Their stated
grievance was the removal Friday of a Soviet war memorial from central
Tallinn. The real inspiration was Moscow.

The Estonian government transferred the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier
and exhumed remains of Soviet troops to a military cemetery near the
capital. Estonians are generous to keep them at all. The Soviets annexed
their country in 1940 and only let go 51 years later. France doesn't have a
memorial to the Nazi occupation.

Since its liberation, no former Soviet republic has managed to irritate the
bear as much as this plucky Baltic mouse of 1.3 million people -- including
300,000 Russians -- famous for its ultramodern economy. Moscow has for years accused Estonia and Latvia of violating ethnic Russians' rights. These countries insist, not unreasonably, that Russians learn a few words of their language to gain citizenship.

The memorial fracas gave Cold War nostalgics in Moscow an excuse to strike
fresh. The upper house of Russia's parliament called on President Vladimir
Putin to break off diplomatic ties, and the Kremlin warned of "serious
consequences." Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a man unafraid of irony, said Estonia "was a country where human rights are not respected." Some of the 1,000 rioters arrested arrived only in recent days from Russia. Tallinn was calmer yesterday, but other towns saw looting and clashes with police.

In spite of such scenes, many Baltic Russians are none too displeased that
the Cold War ended and left them stranded in what became prosperous and free societies that have recently joined the EU. Their ethnic kin to the east aren't so lucky. And the majority of Latvian and Estonian Russians have gotten their citizenship.

As the rioting shows, the Kremlin can still stir the Baltic pot.
Fortunately, as a NATO member, little Estonia doesn't fear for its life,
circa 1940.
**************************************
THE NEW YORK TIMES
After Violent Night, Estonia Removes a Soviet-Era Memorial (28.04.)
Steven Lee Myers
Estonia’s government removed a Soviet-era war memorial early on Friday
morning after a night of protest and violence that killed one person,
injured dozens and left a swath of shattered windows and overturned cars in
the center of the capital, Tallinn, officials there said….

The monument, to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany, was erected in
1947, at the outset of what most Estonians consider the country’s occupation by the Soviet Union. It has been the source of diplomatic tensions for months, reflecting Russia’s uneasy relations with the former Soviet republics or satellites that have moved to integrate themselves more deeply in the European Union and NATO. Estonia, like Lithuania and Latvia, joined both organizations in 2004….

The violence erupted late on Thursday after workers erected a fence and a
tent around the monument, located in a small triangular park near Tallinn’s
Old Town. The declared reason was to start excavations to determine whether
the remains of Soviet soldiers were buried there, though some suspect that
the government’s actual intent was to begin the monument’s removal. More
than 1,000 protesters, most of them apparently Estonians of Russian descent, gathered around the park and soon began to clash with the police, who used tear gas and water cannons as the protest turned to rioting, vandalism and looting.

“All this had nothing to do with the inviolability of graves or keeping
alive the memory of men fallen in World War II,” the Estonian president,
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, said in a statement on Friday. “The common denominator of last night’s criminals was not their nationality, but their desire to riot, vandalize and plunder.” At least 300 people were detained and most now face criminal charges, the government of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, who had led the push for the monument’s removal, said in a statement. At least 44 protesters and 13 police officers were injured….
************************
THE WASHINGTON POST
Statue's Removal Sparks Violent Protests in Estonia (28.04.)
Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
Russia Angry Over Dismantling of Soviet WWII Memorial

The already tense relations between Russia and its tiny neighbor Estonia
threatened to unravel Friday after authorities in the Baltic state removed a Soviet World War II memorial that has become the rallying symbol of two
radically different versions of history.

Violence erupted in Estonia's capital, Tallinn, late Thursday, leaving one
man dead and dozens of police officers and protesters injured, in the hours
before the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier was removed from its location in the city center and taken to an unknown place….

Estonian officials continued to examine ground beneath the statue, where as
many as 14 Soviet soldiers may be buried. They said the bodies of the dead
will be removed and reinterred at a military cemetery, where the statue will be preserved….

For many Estonians … the Red Army was an occupation force that first entered their country in 1940 as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that carved up Eastern Europe. The Soviets promptly annexed Estonia. The Nazis seized the country in 1941 but were driven out in 1944 by the Soviets, who remained in control until
independence in 1991….

But there is also little doubt that the Estonian government was intent on
expunging any glorification of the Soviet past. It accuses the country's
larger neighbor of continuing to defend the worst actions of a totalitarian
system….

Estonian officials have pointed out that war memorials have been demolished
in Russia and generated little of the indignation directed at Estonia….

***********************
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Estonia blames memorial violence on Russia
Adrian Blomfield in Moscow and Bruce Jones in Tallinn
Estonia accused the Kremlin of escalating tensions in the Baltic republic
yesterday after three days of violent clashes between police and ethnic
Russians protesting against the removal of a Soviet war memorial.

Russian-speaking youths rampaged through Tallinn, Estonia's capital,
smashing windows and looting shops during the worst violence the country has seen since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991….

Moscow called Estonia's removal of a war memorial known as The
Bronze Soldier "blasphemous" and an act of "neo-fascism". The Russian
parliament has called for diplomatic relations with its neighbour to be
severed and sanctions imposed.

The Estonian foreign ministry denied Russian charges of police
heavy-handedness. "The groundless accusations are directed at escalating
tensions in Estonia," it said.

In Moscow, Kremlin-backed youth groups carrying Estonian flags daubed with
swastikas blockaded the Baltic state's embassy and set up an inflatable tank outside the building.

Estonian MPs said most of the violence in Tallinn and other cities had been
perpetrated by gangs of skinheads and criminals, an allegation strongly
denied by Russian protestors who said they were attacked by police….

While Russia views the Bronze Soldier as a monument to Estonia's liberation
from Nazi rule, many Estonians regard it as a symbol of Soviet occupation….

Hitler's forces seized Estonia in 1941 before it fell into the Soviet
Union's hands from 1944 until independence in 1991….
***********************
500 held in fresh Estonia riots (29.04.)
Staff and agencies
More than 500 people were detained and 66 injured after a second night of
riots in Estonia's capital Tallinn….

Estonian police say nearly 1,000 people have been arrested during the
unrest.

The trouble was sparked by the Estonian government's plan to remove a World
War II statue - dubbed the Bronze Soldier - and exhume a number of Soviet
soldiers buried next to it in downtown Tallinn.

Estonia's Russians - less than one-third of the country's 1.3 million
population - regard the monument as a shrine to Red Army soldiers who died
fighting the Nazis, but ethnic Estonians consider it a painful reminder of
hardships during a half-century of Soviet rule….

The Estonian government has said the statue had become a public order menace as a focus for Estonian and Russian nationalists.

Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since the 1991 collapse of
the Soviet Union, has condemned the removal of the monument….

The Russian foreign ministry has also demanded that Estonian authorities
conduct a full probe into the death of the person killed on Thursday.
***********************
Subject: from The Independent
Leading article: Don't let Russia bully the Baltics
Published: 30 April 2007
One dead, hundreds arrested and the danger of more trouble to come. It's not what we have come to expect of Estonia, better known to Britons as a
playground and a place to buy property. Some will shake their heads, the
phrase "far-off country of which we know little" coming to mind. We should
resist that temptation. Like it or not, the expansion of the European Union
to the Baltic states means Estonia's crisis with Russia over the removal of
a Soviet war memorial from the centre of Tallin is our concern, too. You
wouldn't know that, however, from the evasive murmurs coming out of Brussels and Germany, the current holder of the EU presidency.

We have had the strange spectacle of the EU nodding with apparent respect as Vladimir Putin's ministers lecture Estonia on civil rights. This is
hypocrisy on a grand scale, given Russia's treatment of its unhappy Chechens and its rough handling of recent anti-government protests in Moscow and St Petersburg.

One might have expected officials from Brussels and Berlin to point out the
discrepancy between the standards Russia that applies to its own minorities
and those it demands of others. Instead, we have had Angela Merkel talking
soothingly to Mr Putin on the telephone and urging restraint on Estonia….

By striking an even posture between tiny Estonia and its former masters in
Russia over the question of what Estonia does with its own war memorials,
Europe is giving Russia a green light to interfere further. It is an assumed right that it will not hesitate to exercise….