Russian Bronze Statue in Estonia

[Stan]

Jan 25, 2007, TBT staff
On Wednesday, the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, passed a resolution asking Estonia to halt its plans to remove a Soviet-Era Red Army monument in Tallinn. “The Federation Council is highly concerned over the adoption of the law on the protection of war graves in Estonia,” the Russian news agency Interfax quoted the document as saying.

This was a major accomplishment for Estonia's new government. The general population was up in arms over the annual tradition of flowering the monument. Dressed in former USSR military uniforms and parading in the general area with Russian flags, as if the Russians still think of themselves as Estonia's liberators. Pretty bold using the name liberator to an army which, after driving the Germans out, stayed on to loot, rape and commit grave crimes against Estonians.

These Russians are actually Estonian citizens (according to their passports that is), who most of the time enjoy their lifestyle in Estonia. Must be that, cause they don't seem to want to return to the Motherland )

The leader of the Nashi (Russian) movement, Vasily Yakemenko, told the media present that if the bronze statue of a Soviet soldier in Tallinn is removed, then Nashi activists will start going to Estonia and take turns standing guard on the monument's former site garbed in military uniform.

While the Russian Federation Council claimed that tearing the statue down would create more divisions in society, the Estonian Prime Minister defended the decision and said just the opposite.

“What respect are we talking about if crowds keep treading on the grave, hold rallies, drink vodka or wait for a trolleybus there? This goes against Estonians' idea of the place of eternal rest of the dead,” he said.

The prime minister added that the bronze statue of a Soviet soldier at Tonismagi in Tallinn has become a monument which is dividing the nation instead of uniting and consolidating it.