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A Soviet monument in the Russian-speaking Estonian border town will be removed because it represents a public order risk, the prime minister said.
“No one wants to see our belligerent and hostile neighbors stirring up tensions in our home,” Prime Minister Kayakaras said, adding that the move followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We will not give Russia the opportunity to use the past to disrupt the peace in Estonia.”
Outside Narva, Estonia’s third-largest town, with a large Russian-speaking population, a replica of a T-34 tank with a Soviet red star stands on a monument to commemorate the WWII Soviet soldiers who liberated Estonia from Germany.
The entire monument was torn down on Tuesday and “actions will be carried out in a dignified manner, for example, flowers and candles placed on the monument will be taken to the cemetery and not thrown into the rubbish”, interior minister Laurie told Baltic News Laanemets said Tuesday.
Estonian broadcaster ERR said demolition work was underway.
Foreign Minister Ulmas Reinsalu said Russia “wanted to use the monument commemorating the criminal occupation regime to increase tensions in Estonian society”.
“Ensuring public order is complex for Narva municipal authorities, given the current situation,” Mr Laanemets said, calling it “a huge and complex issue”.
Since winning independence in 1991, the former Soviet republic of 1.3 million people has struggled with the status of Russians, most of whom arrived in Estonia during 50 years of Soviet rule.
In 2007, the relocation of the so-called Tallinn Statue (another Soviet war memorial) from a city park sparked days of unrest.
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