Estonia on Tuesday removed a World War II memorial erected in time for the glory of the Red Army in Narva, a city inhabited by a large Russian-speaking minority, and accused Moscow of using the works to stoke tensions.
“My government has decided to remove Soviet monuments from public spaces in Estonia,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Previously, the head of government had indicated that Estonia must “act quickly to guarantee public order and internal security”. “We will not give Russia the opportunity to use the past to disturb the peace,” he said.
The monument transferred to a museum.
Local opposition to the removal of the monument, which featured an old Red Army T-34 tank, raised fears of a repeat of the riots that broke out in Tallinn in 2007 after the hijacking of another Soviet monument.
Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanamets said it was “in the interest of public order and internal security to remove the monuments in question before tensions around them escalate.”
The WWII-era T-34 tank, which was part of the Narva memorial, will be transferred to the Estonian War Museum. Instead, the mass grave of war victims will receive a “neutral headstone.” Narva Mayor Katri Raik previously refused to hand over the tank to the museum.
The monument is at the center of the city’s annual VE Day commemoration ceremonies. The Narva city council failed to make a decision on the removal of the monument despite a government order to do so before the end of the year.
Source: BFM TV
