Police in Estonia arrested more than 200 people yesterday following a third night of protests over the government's decision to remove a Soviet war memorial in the country's capital. ... Estonian prime minister Andrus Ansip has called for calm in the wake of the rioting prompted by the removal of the statue, which was erected in 1947 to honour Red Army soldiers who fought against the Nazis. But while Ethnic Russians, who make up around a third of Estonia's population, see the memorial as a recognition of Russia's efforts in the fight against fascism, supporters of the statue's removal associate the monument with the 50-year period during which the Baltic state was ruled by the Soviet Union.
a situation to watch there are real ethnic tensions here but to what extent is the Kremlin directing the FSB to stir tensions, laying the ground work for the tanks to roll across the border "to preserve peace and stability" at some moderately distant future moment Third night of protests in Estonia |