Russia puts Estonian PM on wanted list for destroying Soviet monuments

MOSCOW: Russian police have put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister, and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments, according to the Russian interior ministry’s database.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Kallas was wanted for the “desecration of historical memory.”

Russian state agency TASS said the Baltic officials were accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers,” acts that are punishable by a five-year prison term under the Russian criminal code.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have demolished most of their Soviet-era monuments, including those commemorating Soviet soldiers killed in World War Two.

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The three countries were once ruled from Moscow but are now members of both the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and since the Russian invasion in Ukraine have emerged as staunch supporters of Ukraine and vocal critics of Russia.

Kallas said in 2022 that Estonian authorities would dismantle 200 to 400 of the monuments. A Soviet tank monument in the majority Russian-speaking town of Narva was removed in August 2022.

Meanwhile, the Estonian PM said that European leaders “all agreed that Russia is a big threat. They are more aggressive. I wonder what has happened now”.

She said that European leaders have “seen [that] Russia only goes as far as we let them and we should be very clear (about) what is our goal in the relationship with Russia [now].”