Estonia removes Soviet-era monuments
Estonia on Tuesday removed a World War II memorial erected in the past to the glory of the Red Army in Narva, a city inhabited by a large Russian-speaking minority.
“My government has decided to remove Soviet monuments from public spaces in Estonia”Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a tweettuesday. “Symbols of Soviet repressions and occupation, they have become a source of growing social tension – in these times we must keep the risks to public order to a minimum”she added.
Earlier, the head of government said that Estonia should “act quickly to ensure public order and internal security”. “We will not give Russia the opportunity to use the past to disturb the peace”she said again.
Local opposition to the removal of the monument, which depicted an old Red Army T-34 tank, had raised fears of a repeat of the riots that broke out in Tallinn in 2007 following the kidnapping of a another soviet monument.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said he was “in the interest of public order and internal security to remove the monuments in question before a further increase in tensions around them”.
The T-34 tank, dating from the Second World War, which was part of the Narva memorial, will be transferred to the Estonian War Museum. In its place, the mass grave of war victims will receive a “neutral tombstone”.
Narva Mayor Katri Raik previously refused to hand over the tank to the museum.
The memorial sits at the center of the city’s annual VE Day commemoration ceremonies. The Narva city council failed to reach a decision on the removal of the monument despite the government’s order to do so before the end of the year.
According to Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, Russia is trying to exploit “internal divisions” in the country. Both Estonia and its Baltic neighbor Latvia have large Russian-speaking minorities who are sometimes at odds with national governments. Some fear that Moscow is seeking to exploit these differences of opinion to destabilize these countries, members of the EU and NATO.