SOLDIER OF DISCORD

The Estonian authorities' dismantling of a memorial to the liberating Soviet soldiers in the centre of Tallinn during the night of 26-27 April has sparked the most serious crisis in Russian-Estonian relations since the small Baltic state's declaration of independence.

The decision to move the memorial had been taken some time ago by the Estonian Defence Ministry and the Tallinn mayor's office. On 10 January 2007 the Estonian parliament passed a law "On the protection of war graves" which allowed for the reburial of the remains of soldiers who had been "buried in unsuitable places or if their reburial was necessary in the public interest". In line with the new law, on 9 March a special commission recommended to the Ministry of Defence reburial in the city's military cemetery which is also in the city centre. However, the reaction of the Estonian capital's Russian-speaking population disrupted the measured approach to the reburial of the soldiers' remains. During the evening of 26 April around 1,500 Russian-speaking residents of Estonia gathered at the monument to protest against the excavation and removal of the memorial which was next to the graves of 13 Soviet soldiers. The authorities declared that some of them behaved aggressively. Fires burned on the streets of Tallinn, young people overturned cars, smashed shop windows and looted shops. Some shops selling alcohol were looted. According to the Russian press, 149 shops and kiosks were looted. The Tallinn mayor's office received 224 reports of damage to the tune of 40-50m krone ($3.5-4.4m). In four days of unrest and protests the Estonian authorities made around 1,100 arrests, 80 per cent of them of ethnic Russians. Forty-six people were detained for six months (21 are citizens of Estonia, 21 have no citizenship, one is a citizen of Lithuania, one of Russia and the citizenship of two has yet to be determined). A total of 210 people were questioned as suspects and 14 criminal cases were opened; 156 people were hurt, including 20 policemen. One person died, Dmitriy Ganin, a 20-year-old Russian citizen who lived permanently in Estonia.

The actions of the Estonian authorities prompted an unprecedentedly harsh reaction in Moscow. "Russia must react without hysteria and take serious action towards Estonia over the removal of the memorial to the liberating Soviet soldiers in Tallinn," Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a visit to Norway at the beginning of May. Before the dismantling of the memorial Lavrov told journalists that events in Tallinn affected not only Estonian-Russian relations but also Moscow's links with the European Union. "I think this is disgusting. I haven't seen the pictures but know what's happening there," Lavrov said. "I think there can be no justification for this, it is blasphemy and will have serious consequences for our relations with Estonia." "At the end of the day this cannot but affect our relations with NATO, the EU and organizations that have embraced a country that is crudely trampling on the values that are the foundation of the European Union and of common European culture and European democracy," Russia's foreign minister said.

The reaction of Russian parliamentarians was even harsher and at times cruder. The State Duma passed a statement "On the blasphemous disregard of the Estonian authorities for the memory of the liberating soldiers who fell fighting fascism". On 30 April a State Duma delegation went to Estonia to find out the situation on the ground and what the Estonian authorities planned to do next about the memorial to Soviet soldiers. On the eve of the visit to Tallinn the head of the delegation, Nikolay Kovalev, described the dismantling of the memorial to the liberating soldiers as a populist move taken by the Estonian authorities to improve their popularity with Estonian nationalists. The deputy said that Estonian society is divided and that the law that allowed the dismantling of the memorial was passed in parliament with just a two-vote margin.

Moscow mayor Yuriy Luzhkov's intervention was as active as ever. "When we see what is being done in Estonia, what decisions are being taken in Poland and by the governments of other countries, we should not only protest," the mayor said and called for a boycott of everything connected with Estonia. Luzhkov also said that Russian business structures should stop cooperation with their Estonian partners. "Business must be told: cut off all contact with Estonia. It has shown its extremely negative, one could even say fascist, face."

The Estonian side's motives and reasons look extremely convincing. Tallinn thinks that the memorial, which was erected in September 1947 on a hill in Tynismyagi Park, poses a threat to public safety, as Russian and Estonian nationalists have clashed here several times. What is more important is that for many Estonians the bronze statue of a Soviet soldier in the centre of Tallinn is a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation. "Unfortunately the memorial has a double meaning," Estonian Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said. "On the one hand it is a reminder of those who fell in the war, who gave their lives fighting against Nazi Germany. On the other hand, it is a painful reminder of the Soviet occupation and the crimes against humanity comparable with the crimes of Nazi Germany." The Estonian Defence Ministry decided to erect the bronze monument and other parts of the memorial in the Siselinna military cemetery and officially unveiled it on 8 May, when the end of the Second World War was commemorated in Estonia. It was earlier suggested that representatives of countries that participated in the anti-Hitler coalition should be invited to the ceremony.

The events in Tallinn sparked not only harsh statements by the Russian authorities. Moscow considered the removal of the monument to Soviet soldiers to be vandalism and threatened economic sanctions against Estonia. Russian deputies demanded "immediate steps" from the government in the trade and economic sphere "including in transport, energy and finance". "It is in these areas that many Estonian companies make a good profit from cooperation with Russia," the chairman of the Duma Committee for International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev explained. Kosachev proposed leaving the question of specific sanctions for the government to decide. Despite disagreements Estonia's trade and economic partnership with Russia could be considered extremely intensive in the first months of the year, Russian newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant report. Russia was the top exporter to Estonia in the first quarter of 2007. In January to November 2006 Russia's trade turnover with Estonia reached $2.746bn (this is much higher than turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan), including Russian exports of $2.452bn and imports of $294.3m, according to Interfax. The main areas of Russian exports are oil and oil products, fertilizer, rubber and rubber products, timber, charcoal and heavy metals. Petrol and fuel oil make up three-quarters of Russian exports to Estonia; Russia ships through Estonian ports, mainly to the EU, 66 per cent of its own petrol (3.9m tonnes per year) and 53 per cent of its fuel oil (18.5m tonnes), not including the 5 per cent export of diesel fuel (2m tonnes per year). The Estonian economy is integrated with the Russian economy to a significant extent which hampers any serious initiatives to implement sanctions or protectionist measures against the other country. Most rail links and oil traffic are controlled by Russian business. It participates actively in bilateral projects in construction; Russian businessmen have offshore ownership of many facilities in Estonia. Taken together all these factors make the Estonian economy vulnerable to possible sanctions from Moscow on the one hand, but on the other increase the significance of the Estonian market and trade relations for Russian companies and businessmen. If the interests of the Russian-speaking population, who make up about 30 per cent of the Estonian population, are added to this, then it can be concluded that economic sanctions against Estonia are unlikely.

It should be noted that even before the dismantling of the statue Russian diplomats had tried to draw allies from the CIS onto their side. At the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Astana at the end of April the Russian delegation circulated for signing a draft CIS Council of Foreign Ministers' statement. It expressed deep concern at the plans of the Estonian government to dismantle the memorial and expressed the hope that respect for history and common norms of morality would prevail in the country. When the GUAM member states and Turkmenistan refused to sign the statement, it was signed by the representatives of the seven other participants in the meeting and had the status of a statement by a group of states. The Azerbaijani delegation adopted quite a considered position in the Kazakh capital on the issue, refusing to support the anti-Estonian draft. In this regard the statement by the Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, whose vocal defence of the memorial and, in essence, of the Russian position caused surprise in Baku. "Of course, we cannot interfere in Estonia's affairs as a sovereign state," the ambassador said, "but my personal opinion is that such monuments should not be touched under any circumstances, even if someone doesn't like them." The ambassador seemed to have forgotten that he does not have the right to express his personal opinions publicly, especially not on such a delicate issue and at such a tense time, and that in his job in Moscow he is representing the interests of Azerbaijan in Russia and not Russia's interests in Estonia.

The most dangerous precedent in the crisis was that at its height the Estonian embassy in Moscow was subject to unheard-of pressure and besieged. The crisis showed that not only foreign citizens but also foreign embassies are vulnerable and defenceless in the Russian capital. The Estonian Foreign Ministry expressed its deep regret over this and made a protest. A note given to the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Moscow of breaking the Vienna convention on the protection of diplomatic representations. The demand was also made that the Russian side fulfil its primary obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to ensure the safety and free movement of Estonian diplomats accredited in the Russian Federation and of the embassy in Moscow, the Estonian Foreign Ministry's press service reports. 

As a result the European Union has joined the search for a solution to the Russian-Estonian conflict. In the early stages the EU preferred not to comment on the scandalous events in one of its member states. Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany which at present holds the EU presidency, made a conciliatory initiative. She discussed the situation in Estonia over the telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested that Moscow and Tallinn establish direct contact at the parliamentary level and supported a "rapid settlement of the situation and restraint by both sides". An EU diplomatic troika later handed a letter to the Russian Foreign Ministry calling on Russia to honour in full its commitments under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The EU letter demands that the "complete security of the Estonian diplomatic mission and the physical protection of its personnel be ensured", EU commission spokeswoman Christiana Homan said. The USA and NATO also supported Tallinn's position.

The crisis over the dismantling of the memorial has revealed two different approaches not only to the memory of the soldiers, but also to the principles of contemporary inter-state relations. In reburying the remains of the liberating soldiers, Estonia has returned to the memorial its only significance possible today, a place to honour the memory of the dead, in this way depriving it of ideological meaning. The city's Siselinna cemetery is a worthy place for the reburial and re-erection of the monument. It ensures the peace of the grave and a dignified treatment for war graves, as well as the principle of honouring the memorial and not using it for political ends. The consequences of the events of 1940-41 are unacceptable and even an insult for the majority of the Estonian people and this point of view must be respected. 

It is also important to stress that the remains and the monument were moved without any violation of international law and with respect for common human norms and principles. As for the Russian reaction, it was yet another crude violation of these norms and principles. The blockade of the embassy and the ambassador's car, throwing stones at the diplomatic mission, insults towards the Estonian flag, threats to Estonia and its diplomats from politicians, deputies and the leaders of public and youth organizations, calls for an economic blockade on Estonia - all this is more evidence that at critical moments Russian policy can exceed civilized boundaries and behave like a street crowd. It is time for Russian politicians to learn to respect international law and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and also the right of other nations, including Estonia, to have their own view of their own history.

Leaving the most important till last. When accusing Estonia of fascism, neo-Nazism and trampling on humanitarian and moral principles, Russia should not forget how, without ceremony and practically with the full support of the authorities, nationalistically inclined young Russians deal with what they call Caucasians in the markets, on the metro, in the streets and alleyways of Moscow, St Petersburg and the country's other major cities. In this regard I would like to suggest to Russian politicians and Russia's authorities, which traditionally decline to give an appropriate response to these shameful instances, that they think about how to combat neo-Nazism and aggressive nationalism in their own country. This evil presents a far more serious problem to Russian society than worries about the re-positioning of a war memorial in a neighbouring country. If it did this, Russia would show the whole world that it does hold truly sacred the memory of those who gave their lives to liberate the world from fascism.