Moscow has launched a criminal investigation into Estonia’s Kaja Kallas over the destruction of Soviet WWII memorials
Russian authorities have issued arrest warrants for Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Secretary of State Taimar Peterkop, over their roles in the demolition of Soviet WWII memorials in the Baltic state. Kallas announced in 2022 that the Estonian government had decided to remove all Soviet symbols from public areas “as soon as possible.”
Estonia as well as neighboring Latvia and Lithuania have increasingly targeted Soviet-era war monuments in recent years, describing them as symbols of occupation. The campaign has intensified since the start of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
On Tuesday, TASS quoted unnamed Russian security officials as confirming that a “criminal case has been launched against Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Secretary of State Taimar Peterkop over the destruction and damaging of memorials to Soviet warriors.”
Kallas claimed in August 2022 that hundreds of remaining Soviet monuments in Estonia served as a reminder of historical “wounds,” especially in the context of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and therefore had to be removed.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused the Estonian government of waging “war with a common history.”
(non-archived version link: https://www.rt.com/russia/592373-russia-issues-arrest-warrant-estonian-pm/ )
Oh so that’s what it’s about. See, I only saw Perskov’s comments that it was over “abuse of historical memory and hostility towards Russia”. Which immediately brought forth a long list of people who should be prosecuted for the same with much higher priority. Ya know, people like Nikita Mikhalkov and others who keep shitting out anti-soviet movies, people running and profiting from the Yeltsin museum and the supposed place of execution of Nicholas 2 “the bloodied”. People writing history textbooks. Alla Pugacheva, who owns a literal castle and has decried Russia as “country of peasants”, and was later warmly welcomed back by Peskov himself. Really, a very long list.
Still. Too little, too late.