Estonian capital suffers second night of violence

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Estonian capital suffers second night of violence

By Nerijus Adomaitis
Friday, Apr 27

TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonian police clashed with large groups of youths for a second night on Friday after the removal of the statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier and the death of one man in previous riots.
The authorities took the monument away early on Friday, saying it was a public order problem as it attracted Estonian and Russian nationalists.
Russia reacted furiously to the monument being moved and its upper house of parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the Baltic state. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would "take serious steps."
In the capital city, Tallinn, gangs of Estonian and Russian youths and teenagers shadowed each other around the streets on Friday evening, shouting "Russia, Russia" or "Estonia, Estonia."
In one central square, near the site where the statue had stood, around 200 to 300 police dressed in riot gear sprayed fire extinguishers at the crowd, set off blank explosives and used a water cannon.
A police spokesman said around 100 people had been detained and 10 people injured. Police attempted to keep people from gathering in large numbers and away from the monument site.
Youths smashed the windows of dozens of shops.
The 2-metre (6-1/2 ft) high bronze statue of a World War Two Red Army soldier was moved after the worst violence in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters on Thursday night.
"The aim of the ... decision was to avoid further possible actions against public order," the government said.
RUSSIANS FURIOUS
Removing the statue angered some Russian-speakers, who number about 300,000 in a country of 1.3 million. Estonians tend to view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.
Estonia said one man died in the disturbances, which began after more than 1,000 people gathered to protest against the plan to remove the statue on Thursday. He was stabbed.
Police arrested 300 people, while 44 protesters and 13 police were hurt. Looters set fires and damaged cars.
Television pictures from inside a tent erected over the site showed a long patch where the statue, set up in 1947, had been.
"I ask everyone who is planning a protest action to stay at home. It is not sensible to start one's life with a jail term," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in televised comments.
Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, had protested against moving the monument as an insult to those who fought against fascism.
Russia's Foreign Ministry did not specify what measures it was considering against Estonia. Lavrov, at a NATO meeting in Oslo, said the issue was of interest to Estonia, Russia and to Europe as it touched on European values.

Estonian capital suffers second night of violence - Yahoo! News

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Estonia memorial move 'blasphemy'

Russia says the statue honours soldiers who fought Nazi Germany


Russia has condemned as blasphemous the removal by Estonian authorities of a contentious Red Army war memorial.


Estonia was mocking the dead, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. However, many Estonians saw the statue as a reminder of Soviet rule.
One person was killed early on Friday as the statue was removed from the capital, Tallinn.
In the evening police used tear gas and water cannon as they clashed with protesters throwing Molotov cocktails.
Officers had moved in to disperse the protesters from the site but correspondents say there is no sign of the crowd - more than a 1,000 strong, leaving. Protesters have set fire to posters and trees.
Secret location The removal had provoked angry condemnation from Russian officials and lawmakers.

Mr Lavrov said Russia would "take serious steps" following the removal and Russia's Federation Council (upper house) called for diplomatic relations with Estonia to be cut.
Estonia's government would not reveal where it took the six-foot (1.83m) statue, but spokesman Martin Jasko said it would ultimately be placed at the military cemetery in Tallinn.
The memorial, a bronze statue of a Soviet soldier, was erected in 1947. The remains of Soviet soldiers are thought to be buried nearby.
Estonian officials said it had to be moved to a cemetery because the site attracted both Russian and Estonian nationalists.
'Not justified'
By Thursday evening, around 1,000 demonstrators had gathered as police sealed off the site ahead of the removal.
The memorial has inspired violence between communities


There were reports of looting and vandalism, and police used tear gas and a water cannon when a group tried to break through a cordon around the monument. Several police were among the injured, reports said.
More than 300 of the mostly ethnic Russian demonstrators were arrested during the overnight clashes. "The aim of the government move was to prevent further similar gross violations of public order, which pose a real threat to citizens' health and property," an Estonian government statement said. Ethnic Russians, who make up more than a quarter of Estonia's 1.3 million population, say that the statue commemorates Red Army soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany.

"International organisations should examine [the events in Tallinn] in all seriousness and take any necessary steps to cool the ardour of the Estonian authorities," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.

But on Thursday, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said the relocation of the memorial was a matter for Estonia alone. "We don't consider it necessary to hold deep discussions with the Russian authorities over the internal affairs of Estonia," he said.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Estonia memorial move \'blasphemy\'

[Leland Gaunt]

I can understand Estonians here. The monument is a reminder of a Soviet era and people don't like to be inked to that times anymore. I think that all those riots and looting is a shame for Russians living there, and Tallinn is Estonian capital afterall. It's their country and they have a right to choose what is better for them. Russians (especially those who live in Estonia) don't have a right to judge this decision or get mad and angry like that. They are free to move back home if they refuse to get inegrated into this new Estonia, in case they forgot that it's not a Soviet puppet anymore.

[svin]

The sad fact that while protesting against moving of then monument in Estonia, our own government silently removed monument in Khimki (Moscow region). Just because the place was very valuable and expensive (lots of supermarkets etc needed this place).

And of course all these riots are total shame, just like arabs in France. That's simply awful.

[Errigal]

I sympathize with the Estonians too, but it would have been far better if the Russian and Estonian governments had agreed to a military ceremony to transfer the statue from downtown to the Soviet military cemetery.

[svin]

It would be better simply to move this monument to Russia if Estonians don't want to have it there. Peaceful movement wouldn't harm anyone.

[Leland Gaunt]

Originally Posted by A Few Acres of Snow

I sympathize with the Estonians too, but it would have been far better if the Russian and Estonian governments had agreed to a military ceremony to transfer the statue from downtown to the Soviet military cemetery.

I don't think that Russian goverment would ever agree to that. They display pretty much selfish imperialistic behaviour during this whole episode.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Ed Gein

I don't think that Russian goverment would ever agree to that. They display pretty much selfish imperialistic behaviour during this whole episode.

True. The Russians missed an opportunity to move forward by compromising on this issue.

[Leland Gaunt]

Originally Posted by A Few Acres of Snow

True. The Russians missed an opportunity to move forward by compromising on this issue.

Russian goverment was expecting Estonians to obey and compomise, but why they should? They are no Soviet Republic anymore. The whole reaction of Russian media is moronic too. I am disgusted.

[Errigal]

I don't want to sound paranoid but I wonder if this controversy was a trap set up to make Putin's Russia look bad and Russia walked right into it. Right now there is a campaign to make Russia look scary and this kind of thing really helps.

[Leland Gaunt]

Originally Posted by A Few Acres of Snow

I don't want to sound paranoid but I wonder if this controversy was a trap set up to make Putin's Russia look bad and Russia walked right into it. Right now there is a campaign to make Russia look scary and this kind of thing really helps.

I don't think so. Estonia is just breaking with Soviet past on their way to European integration. Some Russians especially pro-Soviet ones, are insulted by this and so we have all those riots. Note that support to Russian position was showed only from the side of such countries as Kazachstan or Moldova which represent a Post-Soviet (but still Soviet in some way)-economically-depending-on-Russia-sh*tholes.

[wilpuri]

Originally Posted by A Few Acres of Snow

I don't want to sound paranoid but I wonder if this controversy was a trap set up to make Putin's Russia look bad and Russia walked right into it. Right now there is a campaign to make Russia look scary and this kind of thing really helps.

This controversy is more likely stirred up to direct attention away from the current situation in Putin's Russia rather than make it look bad.

[Ostrogorski]

I'm totally on the Russian side, because of this.

I mean, Estonians are just small-minded and pathetic little nation with a complex called "we are backed by the NATO/USA/EU, so we can now do what ever we want - Fuck Russia"!

And Russia has every reason to be worry, with all those NATO allies in the neighborhood!

[Leland Gaunt]

Originally Posted by Sektor

I'm totally on the Russian side, because of this.

I mean, Estonians are just small-minded and pathetic little nation with a complex called "we are backed by the NATO/USA/EU, so we can now do what ever we want - Fuck Russia"!

And Russia has every reason to be worry, with all those NATO allies in the neighborhood!

I don't think that it has anything to do with NATO. It's simply Estonian-Russian thing. And why on earth Estonians should love Russians since many of them think that this country is just "small-minded and pathetic little nation "? Where's the root of this problem?

[Ostrogorski]

Originally Posted by Ed Gein

I don't think that it has anything to do with NATO. It's simply Estonian-Russian thing. And why on earth Estonians should love Russians since many of them think that this country is just "small-minded and pathetic little nation "? Where's the root of this problem?

Well, think again... although, I don't necessarily have to be right in this question, I think it has everything to do with high international politics and geopolitics. It's not just about the monument or the people who were buried beneath and who deserve, at least respect,because they are dead,and dead should be left to rest in peace, it's also a test - how far will Russia go, in defending her interests in the region.

As for Estonians, they've only showed that they are impolite and rude neighbors, and that they dare to spit in the face of Russia, before the eyes of the whole world, for no good reason!