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Estonian premier:
Russia's threats cannot influence decisions by a democratic sovereign state
Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has rejected Russia's criticism of the law recently passed by the Estonian parliament, which opens the path for removing a monument to the Soviet soldiers liberating Estonia from Nazis from the center of Tallinn, and ruled out the possibility that this decision could be revised.
"Russia's threats cannot influence decisions by a democratic sovereign state. It is absolutely obvious that the Estonian people will decide for themselves how to arrange their affairs in their republic," Ansip said in an interview with Interfax.
Moscow has described the latest situation surrounding the monument in Tallinn as a historical injustice and a step toward the rehabilitation of Nazism and called on the international community to properly respond to these plans. A number of Russian politicians called for imposing sanctions on Estonia.
Ansip said the new law shows that his country "observes and recognizes" its obligation to ensure due respect for the remains of the soldiers who were killed during the war on Estonian soil, in line with the relevant Geneva convention. He noted, however, that in the current conditions it is difficult to comply.
"What respect are we talking about while a lot of people stamp on the grave, hold rallies, drink vodka or wait for a trolleybus there - this goes against the Estonian people's idea of peace for the dead and the place of their eternal rest," he said.
The prime minister argued that "the monument is dividing the people instead of uniting and consolidating them."
As for the Soviet and Nazi symbols, Ansip said people in Estonia do not see any difference between them and consider all of them attributes of "occupation regimes."
"The symbols of both occupation regimes are banned in Estonia if they are used for fuelling hatred and if this is done in violation of public peace," Ansip said. "Nobody bans using such symbols" for educational, artistic, commercial, or journalistic purposes or in order to reflect historical or contemporary events," he said.
However, "both the swastika and the hammer and sickle are symbols of occupation regimes in Estonia," he said.
The final say on whether the use of "the symbols of occupation regimes" was aimed at fuelling enmity in each particular case will rest with the courts, he said.
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