TALLINN (AFP/EJP)--- Russia snubbed Monday an invitation to attend Estonian ceremonies to mark the end of World War II, including one at a Soviet war memorial at the centre of a bitter dispute between the neighbours.

Embassy spokesman Maxim Kozlov said Russian diplomats would not attend a Tuesday’s events -- including one at the controversial Bronze Soldier statue -- because for Russians victory in the war was the following day.

"We will not attend the laying of flowers at the military cemetery on May 8, because for Russia, Victory Day is on May 9," he said.
The removal of the statue has been criticised by Jewish groups both in and outside Estonia.

Last week the Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Dr. Efraim Zuroff, said the Center belives the removal of the monument "minimizes the severity of the crimes of the Holocaust in Estonia and insults all the Nazis’ victims in the country".

Estonia received an "F" or failing grade in the Wiesenthal Center’s last (2007) Annual Status Report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, published this month.

"While the Center fully empathizes with the suffering of Estonians of all faiths and nationalities under Soviet rule it must never be forgotten that it was the Red Army which effectively stopped the mass murder conducted by the Nazis and their local collaborators on Estonian soil until the final day of its occupation by Nazi Germany," Zuroff said.

"Thus the removal of the monument from the center of Tallinn by the government reflects a regrettable lack of sensitivity to the depth of Nazi criminality and is an insult to its victims. This is not surprising in a country which has proven to be indifferent to the crimes committed by Estonian Nazi collaborators, not a single one of whom has been held accountable since Estonia became independent, whereas numerous Communist collaborators have been prosecuted by the local judicial authorities."

Revisionist history

Mark Grubarg, member of the board of the European Council of Jewish Communities and chairman of the Jewish Community of St Petersburg, echoed Zuroff’s remarks.

"Even though the Estonian authorities’ intention to unveil the monument to the Liberator Soldier in the military cemetery is a step to reconciliation, the removal of the monument and the excavation of the graves in the run up to May 9 is a symbolic gesture in favour of the revision of history," Grubarg said.

He pointed out that "Estonia’s population largely denied support to the authorities’ actions, as the immorality of what takes place is obvious to everyone with clear reason."

"It is highly important that leaders of Jewish communities in Europe should declare that such actions are impermissible," Grubarg said.
Kozlov said the Russian ambassador would instead lay wreaths on Wednesday at a military cemetery in Tallinn and at other Soviet war graves and monuments around the country.

Estonia regretted that the Russians were not attending the events which it said would gather diplomats from 27 different countries.

"While it is the right of the Russian embassy to choose which ceremonies to attend, we are sorry Russia will not join the international community in Tuesday’s ceremonies," defence ministry spokesman Madis Mikko told AFP.

Worsening relations

Russia’s apparent snub came 10 days after the Estonian authorities moved the Bronze Soldier from its pride of place at a busy crossroads to a military cemetery in a quiet neighbourhood of the capital.

The removal of the statue, which Russia sees as a sacred memorial to Red Army soldiers who died fighting Nazism, sparked rioting in Tallinn and saw relations with Moscow sink to their lowest point since Estonia won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Moscow dismisses Estonia’s view that the statue also symbolizes two occupations of Estonia by Soviet forces, one in the early stages of World War II, the other after, which led to half a century of rule from Moscow and the deportation to Siberia of tens of thousands of Estonians.

Mikko, the Estonian defence ministry spokesman, made a point of saying that Estonia was not commemorating only those who were victorious in World War II but also the victims of the war.

"Estonia considers itself a victim of the war. We were attacked by both sides," he said.

Russia and many members of the large Russian community in Estonia mark the end of World War II on May 9.

Half the population of Tallinn and around 30 percent of Estonia’s population of 1.34 million are ethnic Russians.

For Estonia and the other two Baltic states, Latvia and Lithuania, May 9 marks the start of nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation which began at the end of World War II and ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union crumbled.

Besides the event at the Bronze Soldier, Estonia is holding other ceremonies at a memorial to Jews killed in the Holocaust, and at a war monument in Tallinn to Red Army soldiers and Estonians who fought on the side of Germany.

ejpress.org