Russia lashed out angrily at Estonia on Thursday over legislation allowing for the removal of a monument marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany from Estonia's capital, calling it part of a "blasphemous escapade" that could badly damage relations.
The Foreign Ministry summoned Estonia's ambassador to hear a strongly worded complaint about the law, which has further frayed strained ties by bringing vastly different views of the role of the Soviet Union and its military in the Baltic nation into sharp relief.
Signed by the Estonian president last week, the law permits the relocation of statues and monuments from sites deemed unsuitable and allows for the removal from Tallinn of a 1947 statue of a Soviet soldier. The bodies of several Soviet soldiers are buried underneath the monument.
The ambassador was told that "efforts to create a legislative basis for plans to exhume remains and dismantle monuments to Soviet warriors continue in Estonia," the ministry said, calling such moves "a blasphemous escapade and glaring show of contempt for the memory of warriors who freed the world from fascism."
It warned that the removal of any monuments or remains would have "serious consequences" for relations, but did not say what they would be. The Kremlin-loyal Russian parliament adopted a resolution Wednesday calling on President Vladimir Putin and the government to reconsider bilateral cooperation with Estonia.
The victory over Nazi Germany is a source of profound pride for millions of Russians, and Putin has repeatedly, publicly stressed the role of the Soviet army as a liberator of nations that came under Nazi control during World War II.
Many people in the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, however, see Soviet soldiers as culprits in an often abusive five-decade occupation of their countries, which gained independence in the 1991 Soviet collapse and have joined the European Union and NATO.
A symbol for both sides, the monument in Tallinn has deeply upset many Estonians but has been a rallying point for war veterans and supporters who meet annually to commemorate the victory — though the government banned meetings there after numerous clashes between ethnic Estonians and native Russian-speakers.
In a separate statement Thursday that also drove home the deeply divergent attitudes toward history, the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow will reject any demands from the Baltic nations for compensation for wrongs or losses suffered under Soviet rule.
"Pronouncements about the 'occupation' of Lithuania by the Soviet Union and claims of any character linked with them ignore the legal, historical and political realities and ... are completely devoid of any basis," the ministry said.
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