Apr 30
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A group of members of Russia’s Duma demanded the resignation of the Estonian government on their visit to Tallinn. It’s been said those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat. Perhaps, the members of the Duma are not familiar with the events of 1940, when the Soviet Union established puppet governments in three Baltic States.
Update: Justin has more on this.
Apr 30
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The esteemed member of European Parliament representing Latvia Tatjana Zdanoka is in Tallinn meeting with representative of the Nochoy Dozor. That in itself shouldn’t be surprising.
Apr 30
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The old monument in its new place may relieve some tensions, even though the angriest of Russians demand the head of Estonia’s Prime Minister Andrus Ansip. The Estonian government didn’t intend to demolish the monument in the first place. It will be interesting to see what the Russian media will say about this.
Photo from postimees.ee
Apr 30
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From the Independent:
One dead, hundreds arrested and the danger of more trouble to come. It’s not what we have come to expect of Estonia, better known to Britons as a playground and a place to buy property. Some will shake their heads, the phrase “far-off country of which we know little” coming to mind. We should resist that temptation. Like it or not, the expansion of the European Union to the Baltic states means Estonia’s crisis with Russia over the removal of a Soviet war memorial from the centre of Tallin is our concern, too. You wouldn’t know that, however, from the evasive murmurs coming out of Brussels and Germany, the current holder of the EU presidency.
We have had the strange spectacle of the EU nodding with apparent respect as Vladimir Putin’s ministers lecture Estonia on civil rights. This is hypocrisy on a grand scale, given Russia’s treatment of its unhappy Chechens and its rough handling of recent anti-government protests in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Apr 30
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Following two nights of unrest and looting in Estonia’s capital, the court Saturday sanctioned an arrest of Dmitry Linter, a leader of the Night Watch group, whose sole purpose was to prevent Estonian authorities from removing the Soviet-era monument.
Also arrested were Maks Reva, and an 18-year-old Mark Siryk, an activist of the Siin youth movement in Estonia.
Linter, pictured here in a white hat, is very closely connected with Latvia’s “pro-Russian” PCTVL party (For Human Rights in United Latvia) as well as the Headquarters to Protect Russian Schools, an unregistered group opposing Latvia’s 2004 education reform.
In its annual report last year that we found on the Web (the link’s in Russian), Estonian Security Services caution about Linter’s Latvian connection and his danger to the state security.
Russian government, such as ministry of foreign affairs and the office of the mayor of Moscow, backed PCTVL in the Latvia’s municipal election in 2005, according to the report. The political party secretly cooperated with the country’s radical groups, such as Latvian National Democratic Party, led by Evgeny Osipov along with another “law-abiding” party as National Bolsheviks. Occasionally, PCTVL defended the uberpatriots when the nation’s law enforcement agencies tried to stop their activities. PCTVL used those organizations to launch a campaign against the education reform in Latvia in 2005.
Therefore, the report says, any cooperation between PCTVL led by now-MEP Tatyana Zhdanoka and organizations created to defend Russian-speaking population in Estonia must be considered a danger to the national security.
At the same time, a cooperation between Juris Sokolovskis, a member of the Saeima from PCTVL, and Linter must be considered. At that time, Russian Party in Estonia along with the Latvian organizations decide to stage protests against the education reform in Latvia. Any coverage gave Linter an opportunity for free publicity before the upcoming municipal election.
The tactic was simple: cause a public uproar and increase the number of votes at the election time. Linter spoke at the second congress of the Headquarters to Protect Russian Schools in April 2005. Then, he said that a situation in Estonia is fairly similar to Latvia’s because there Russians are being “Estoniaized.” The end result, he said, was to keep Russians from power. He called onto Russian diaspora in the Baltic States stand in one front against policies that discriminate against the Russians.
The municipal election didn’t bear any fruit. The Linter group resorted to using provocations as a way to attract the international attention to the problem, thus discredit Estonian authorities. And once again, pupils were involved.
For example, on April 23, 2005, in cooperation with Latvian cohorts, Linter was preparing a massive protect. Main participants of the PCTVL meetings in Latvia were to take part. They were to arrive to Estonia under the pre-text of a school field trip and stage a protect before the unexpecting Estonian authorities. The goal was simple: to make the international headlines and turn the public attention to this problem. It was a provocation because Linter picked an Open Door day at the Estonia’s parliament. The location: the parliament building in Tallinn.
Levs Vasiljevs was among tourists. He was already banned from entering Estonia for inciting hatred. Thanks to the work of the security services, the protest didn’t take place, but 12 Latvian radicals were banned from entering Estonia.
Vasiljevs is a 23-year-old unemployed man, who jumps into the public eyes every Lenin’s or Hitler’s birthday wearing a hammer and a sickle T-shirt with a slogan against the education reform.
In May 2005, the security services prevented a manifestation before the Latvian embassy in Estonia and another gathering on May 8, 2005, both were organized by Linter. The first meeting was served as a presentation of the Tallinn chapter of the Russia’s National Bolshevik Party. Through his irresponsible actions with a complete loss of reality, Linter discredited himself in the eyes of young Russians who supported National Bolsheviks. That’s why they refused to participate in the event.
Apr 29
For the past two days, official Web sites of Estonian government had been inaccessible. A strong stream of hacker attacks “from abroad” caused the government officials to shut down any access from overseas.
This note from the foreign ministry was posted this morning:
The Foreign Ministry apologises for any inconveniences caused by the lack of accessibility to the Foreign Ministry website from abroad. The website problems were caused by malevolent attacks from the East (artificially high number of inquiries sent in an organised manner). To protect the site, the Foreign Ministry was forced to block access to the website from abroad. Now the problem is under control and the website is once again accessible to all.
Update @1646 EET 30.04.2007: I can’t connect to official sites in Estonia: be it the ministry of foreign affairs or the site of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow.
Apr 28
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Yesterday, Justin wondered who would successfully put a spin on the recent events in Tallinn.
Well, the Russian propaganda machine didn’t disappoint us.
Reuters reported:
TALLINN (Reuters) – Estonia on Saturday stepped up preparations to exhume the remains of Red Army soldiers at a memorial site after removing a World War Two monument, sparking two days of riots in which one man died.
As calm returned to the capital after violence which shocked the small Baltic state, Russia expressed anger over Estonia’s actions and accused Tallinn police of using excessive force and causing the death of the man, a Russian citizen.
This refers to a note coming from the beehive, or the ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation.
It has just become known that a citizen of the Russian Federation, permanently resident in Estonia, died as a result of the clashes when the Estonian authorities attempted to disperse the demonstrations taking place in Tallinn on the night of April 26-27 in defense of the Monument to the Liberator Soldier.
The death of a Russian citizen spawned into the top story on Russian TV. Understandably so. It mobilizes. It angers. It creates an impression that the in-fighting is ethnically-based.
It is also far from the truth.
The victim was a 19-year-old Russian citizen named Dmitry, who had permanent residency in Tallinn. He died of a knife injury sustained in a fight with someone named Oleg. The police broke up the fighting and both participants were taken to a local hospital where they were treated. The doctors did their best, but were unable to save Dmitry’s life.
One could give Russian media a benefit of the doubt. They didn’t know this. But according to some blogs from Estonia, the news was announced at 7 a.m. Friday at a press conference of the country’s internal affairs minister Juri Pihla.
The Kremlin knows what it’s doing.
Apr 28
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Translation from a note in a journal of a Tallinn’s vigdi_ss:
I think you’ll understand me.
This is my city. I’ve lived here since birth. I feel every bit of change in the wind from the sea. This city, it’s mine. The city is a living being for me. I know how she feels, eats, and breaths. And, naturally,most recent events cause a physical reaction, nervous shivers, nervous tears.
I’m alive and well. Not worked over by “democratizators”, not overwhelmed with gas, with healthy kidneys. Many hundreds of people, just like me, who consider this city their own, are sitting in the Terminal D at the Tallinn port with any opportunity to wash their faces or use the facilities.
I just came home. I have a heavy head. I couldn’t sleep all night. It seems like I live far away from the city center, but still — constant rattle of helicopters, ongoing sirens. which I can still hear even here at the end of the world.
Sunny, dry, and cool morning. Nearly 80 percent, shop and gallery windows are covered with plywood. What a wild sight! It’s strange that in the middle of the night a mob didn’t want to take the gold, or clothes, but books. Damn, here I’m biting my elbows from anger: I understand that it’s looting and hairsplitting, but in one bookstore I saw a giant atlas of the world which I wanted to buy. Even that store’s windows were broken. I didn’t get the atlas.
It’s quiet. The air today smells like dry rotten fury and blood. And now I’m scared for real. But it had to happen. I’m glad it had happened. Now it doesn’t even matter what shape it has taken. People knew long ago that friggin’ integration, based on Draconian laws or almost persecution, has failed. But everyone has chosen to close their eyes. And we endured, swallowed, bullshitted on forums, hoped that everything would get sorted on its own and that the government would open its eyes. But those people have no eyes; they’re blind. They were blinded by unbearable thirst for free money that flows into their hands and power. Very few come out of the test by power.
I understand, many frequently write about provocations. I hate that word. My dear people, those Russian (from Russia) friends who think those events are provocation — of America or Kremlin — I’d have to report: even if it was a provocation, even if it was a Russian provocation, trust me it doesn’t matter. Now we cannot afford NOT TO REACT.
Today is Saturday. Which means tourists. Swedes-Norwegians and British. We ought to organize quick tours, as A. said. Something like “Eric The Red: Back to the Future.” The brochures would say, “Rob, Kill, and Rape. Remember your glorious past of your ancestors vikings.” It would work here.
And everyone will get their share.
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