TALLINN - The intense diplomatic rift over the relocation of the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn has plunged Estonian-Russian relations, already chilly, into the deepest freeze imaginable. Moscow’s reaction to the operation on the Bronze Soldier’s removal was swift and explosive. The Russian Federation Council (the upper house of Parliament) on April 27 unanimously passed a resolution asking President Vladimir Putin to sever diplomatic relations with Estonia, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov said when putting the motion to the vote that “we’ve had enough of this mocking the dead.”
Diplomatic ties, for now, won’t be severed, but other rhetoric coming from the Russian capital is just as biting.

Russian lawmakers have called for economic sanctions against Estonia, and accusations, both veiled and open, of neo-fascism on the part of the Estonian leadership continue to pour from the East.
It what was meant to be an effort to clear up misunderstandings, Russia and Estonia agreed, at the suggestion of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that a four-member delegation from the Russian Duma would visit Estonia April 30 - May 1.
Heading the delegation was Leonid Slutski, the Vice-President of the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee. Before his trip he had demanded Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip’s resignation, and that the Bronze Soldier monument be returned to its original location by May 9.

Delegates were shown the site where the monument would be relocated, were able to meet with police to address concerns about the treatment of those arrested in the riots.
Sven Mikser, Chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told The Baltic Times that though the two sides didn’t see eye to eye on the matter of Estonia’s occupation by the USSR after World War II, they were able to at least show the delegates that the Bronze Soldier statue had not been “cut up into pieces” as was widely reported in the Russian media. He expressed hope that the dialog would continue.
It was a hope short-lived. As Mikser was making his remarks, journalists and ambassadors waiting for the delegation to arrive at a joint press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were informed that the Russians had decided to cancel the agreed-upon program and were at that moment holding their own press conference, without the Estonians, at the Russian embassy.
The Estonian Foreign Ministry released a statement on April 30 saying that it was “shocked” by the delegates’ behavior, and Foreign Minister Urmas Paet later refused to meet with them.

“I will not meet with a delegation that spreads only lies regarding events in Estonia and whose objective is not the accurate portrayal of the situation, but rather election campaigning,” said Paet in a statement on May 1.
Meanwhile the Estonian embassy in Moscow is under siege by protesters from the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth movement, and has had to suspend regular consular services.
The ambassador said that it was clear that the siege was organized, if not under Russian authorities’ leadership, then at least with their tacit support, BNS reports.

The rift between the two countries has met with mixed reaction by European leaders. Finland, Lithuania and Macedonia have come out in strong support of Estonia, as has EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called the removal of a Red Army monument from the center of the Estonian capital insulting to the Russians who died fighting fascism in World War II.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel expressed a similar opinion.

Poland is taking the opposite tact. Polish Culture Minister Kazimierz Ujazdowski said on April 30 that symbols of the Communist dictatorship must disappear from the streets of Polish cities.

baltictimes.com