Moscow demands that European institutions and specialized non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pressure Estonia into punishing those responsible for the murder of Russian citizen Dmitry Ganin and the desecration of Soviet World War II memorials in 2007, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday.
April 27 marks the 15th anniversary of the 2007 Bronze night - the day when the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, a Soviet World War II memorial, was relocated to the Tallinn Military Cemetery and the remains of Soviet soldiers were exhumed. Disagreements over the appropriateness of the relocation sparked clashes and riots in Estonia, during which Ganin was killed.
"We demand from the European institutions and specialized NGOs ... that Tallinn be effectively influenced in strictly complying with its international legal obligations, specifically in the restoration of justice and punishment of those responsible for both the murder of D. Ganin and the desecration of monuments to the heroes-liberators, as it turns out, of ungrateful Europe," Zakharova said.
Zakharova said that Tallinn completely discredited itself as a country governed by the rule of law after its law-enforcement bodies closed the case on Ganin's murder due to "expiration of the statute of limitations," and then "trampled on the bilateral Agreement on Legal Assistance of 1993" and ignored numerous requests from the Russian side "while referring to the EU legislation on Personal Data Protection."
Zakharova noted that the "cynical" decision of the Estonian government made in 2007 should be seen as Tallinn's policy "to revise the results of World War II and combat the Soviet memorial legacy." The spokeswoman added that this policy "gained a new lease of life" in solidarity with "the neo-Nazi forces of Ukraine," reflected in the defacing of other Soviet memorials across Estonia. Zakharova argued that with the help of "the Collective West" Estonia is trying to erase "the tragic lessons of the Second World War" and "the memory of those who liberated the world from fascism."
On Wednesday, Estonian police banned citizens from public gatherings with the use of St. George ribbons Russian and Soviet flags, and Soviet military uniforms from April 26 to May 10 to avoid provocation in connection with the upcoming celebration of Victory Day on May 9. Estonia does not officially celebrate Victory Day on May 9; however, thousands of people living in the country bring flowers and lay wreaths on the graves of fallen Soviet soldiers. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor