Russian Embassy calls Estonia's excavation of Soviet soldiers' graves vandalism

Estonia's excavation of the graves of Red Army soldiers and their exhumation is nothing but an act of vandalism. This was stated by Lenar Salimullin, Russia's Charge d'Affaires in Estonia, on September 22.

"The recent trend has been the exhumation of the remains of the fighters against the "brown plague" who found their resting place here. News of such atrocities appear with deplorable regularity," he told RIA Novosti.

Salimullin also said that the authorities have "encroached" even on the Tallinn military cemetery. The ashes of 38 Soviet Army servicemen buried there, who at the cost of their own lives gave freedom to the current generation of Estonians, were lifted from the ground and the slabs with their names were dismantled.

"We strongly condemn such antics of coffin diggers and consider them as acts of state vandalism aimed at revising the results of World War II," he said.

Salimullin rebuked the Estonian authorities for hypocrisy, who amid the "shameful mockery" of the ashes of Soviet soldiers emphasized respect for monuments to Nazi collaborators.

"The local authorities not only carefully protect the existing monuments in honor of Estonian legionnaires of the 20th Waffen-SS Division, but also allow the installation of new ones - at the end of July this year in the city of Jõhvi there was a solemn ceremony of opening a memorial in honor of Hitler's collaborators who served in this unit," he added.

Earlier, on July 1, Estonia began dismantling the tombstones of Soviet soldiers at the Tehumardi cemetery on the island of Saaremaa, where almost 300 Red Army soldiers are buried. It was noted that the remains would be reburied at the Vananõmme cemetery on the territory of Lõmala village on the island.

In this regard, the Russian Embassy in Tallinn sent a note of protest to the Estonian Foreign Ministry with a call to stop the transfer of burials of Soviet soldiers. It is specified that the protest note sent to the Estonian Foreign Ministry calls for stopping blasphemous actions and stopping the immoral campaign to liquidate the objects of the Soviet war memorial heritage, which is aimed at revising the results of the Second World War.

In early February, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Estonia's plans to rebury Soviet military remains in Tallinn without the consent of their relatives would not go unanswered by Moscow. In this connection, Estonia's Charge d'Affaires in Russia Jana Vanamelder was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Since the beginning of February 2023, the Estonian authorities have allocated €1.42 million for the dismantling of Soviet monuments.