Estonia spirited away the controversial statue of a Red Army Soviet soldier from the centre of the capital, Tallinn, in the early hours on Friday after violent riots against its removal in which one man was killed.
Russia reacted furiously to the move and its upper House of Parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the small Baltic state.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would ”take serious steps” against Estonia, Russian news agencies reported.
The statue was taken away in the early hours after the worst violence seen in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters.
”The aim of the government decision was to avoid further possible actions against the public order,” Estonia’s government said in a statement.
Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has protested against the plan to move the World War II monument as an insult to those who fought fascism.
It has also angered local Russian-speakers, a large minority of about 300 000 in the country of 1,3-million. Estonians tend to view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.
”Yet again, we can qualify the actions of official Tallinn as sacrilegious and inhuman …,” Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mikhail Kamynin as saying.
”We are working to formulate a concrete reaction towards what has happened,” he added.
He said the move was harsh ahead of the May 9 anniversary of the end of World War II, a popular public holiday in Russia.
By mid-morning the area around the statue was calm and traffic was flowing freely. Estonia said the statue was now somewhere under police control.
People continued to clean up the streets and windows in many residential and office buildings nearby were smashed.
Russian anger
The vote by Russia’s upper House of Parliament on severing diplomatic ties with Estonia reflected Moscow’s anger.
”We’ve seen enough of this mocking the dead and scoffing at the victory in World War II,” Russian news agencies quoted Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov as telling the chamber. The senators then backed the non-binding decision.
Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign relations committee at the Federation Council, said the events in Tallinn showed that ”the war against fascism did not end on May 9 1945”.
”This fight goes on and it will continue as long as there are grave-diggers who are ready to throw out from the graves those who defeated fascism,” he told Russian television.
The violence came amid strong feelings about the 2m high bronze statue of a World War II Red Army soldier, set in a large stone wall in a park, which was erected in 1947.
The government said one man died in the disturbances, which began after more than 1 000 people gathered to protest on Thursday, after being stabbed in the subsequent violence.
The government said 44 of the protesters and 13 police were injured and 300 people were arrested. Looters smashed windows, fires were started and cars overturned.
Estonia has said the monument is a public-order problem as it attracts Estonian and Russian nationalists. It has also said it is more respectful to the dead to be buried in a cemetery.
The authorities had fenced off the area around the monument and the statue itself and erected a long white tent as they prepared to dig for the remains of any soldiers. — Reuters