Scott – if you are believing propaganda and are repeating it as a parrot (or are you one, did you get your DNA examined by a reputable lab), then we have to stop right there.

There is an absolutely free press in Russia. You don’t need to have a license to operate a publishing house. You CAN LISTEN TO CIA-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty on FM broadcasted locally – in your car. Euronews is in Russian available through over the air TV. Putin has genuine approval rating of over 70% (he is an amiable man, he is unfortunately sheepish, for example he is reluctant to offend his buddies ethno-Nazis).

By the way, here is an example of how “unfree” is Russian press. It’s an article from St. Petersburg’s Fontanka in translation which indirectly accuses Putin in having own business interests in Estonia and does it in a very ironic manner.

http://timely-thoughts.com/russia/2007/05/05/_president_discovers_truth_about_ports_and_russian_business_in_estonia/

People are upset with Putin because he did not punish Estonia. It hurt him a lot.

Finally, Soviet war monuments and wartime graves are all over – everywhere where Nazis were fought – there is one in Berlin and one Vienna. Sorry, Germans and Austrians are not destroying war graves (and Germans had their DDR experience) – why – because Germans are human, and Estonian ethno-Nazis are not.

I agree, Russia should have denounced the “recognition” of rogue ethno-Nazi statelet’s “independence” from 1991 (the so-called Tartu Peace Treaty is a sham, so we won;’t touch the stinking thing for the time being), break off relations, announce that Estonia consists of two provinces of Russia (no need for visas, even ethno-Nazis can come visa-free though I guess the most vicious ones should be imprisoned unfortunately Russia has no death penalty now) and as of embassy they should have kicked the stupid thing out of the country. It is incomrehensible how meek, sheepish and toothless is today’s Russia.

No – Etho-Nazi that’s not true. The Red Flag flew over Nuremberg tribunal building, and under this flag spiritual ancestors of those who now destroyed the soldier’s grave in Tallinn, were condemned. Estonian ethno-Nazis had murdered their entire Russian and Jewish population with most killings done BEFORE Nazis arrived. In Iuriev (Tartu) 12500 people were killed because of who they are. After war, Soviet authorities deported 57 000 Estonian collaborators, saboteurs Nazis, and their family members. They apparently did not kill or deport enough as all the Nazis back in Estonian “parliament.” 57 000 deported and killed Nazis and Estonian “patriots” is not a big number. In Pskov and Novgorod and Northwestern region Estonian SS members murdered over 200 000 civilians. Now, the descendants of these SS butchers are participation in occupation of Iraq, where perhaps as many as one million civilians died (700 000 according to the Lancet magazine estimates) – that’s as many as victims as there are LIVE Estonian today. So let’s put things in a perspective here – a mildly oppressive authoritatian regime (Red Flag) versus SAVAGE BARBARITY (Nazi flag, Estonian flag). And no – I am not watching Russian propaganda (I don’t have Russian TV!).

Anyway, look at it – this is the face of Estonia and of EU. More to come.

http://www.timely-thoughts.com/discrimination/2007/05/06/equal_housing_opportunity_under_eu_and_nato_protection/

So what? Soviet isn’t a nationality, it’s a political system that was cast off years ago.
Was the post-1776 “cultural cleansing” of anything supporting the British monarchy in the US incorrect? I don’t think so.

Last year, a bill was introduced in Estonia to criminalise the display or possession of anything ‘Soviet’. The removal of just about every other public Russian artefact is testimony to the programme.

No. They don’t remove Russian artifacts. In fact this country is dotted with markers to the many Russian intellectuals that called Estonia home during periods of their life.

They did criminalize the display of Soviet and Nazi symbols if they are used to incite violence. This past week there were many Red flags at cemeteries and memorials in Estonia. No one was arrested.

Following cultural cleansing, there is now a form of ethnic cleansing of the minority Russian speakers by the Language Directorate. No one denies this.

The language directorate might be too harsh. But nobody denies that unilingualism among Russian speakers is a disservice to the Estonian speaking majority. In certain professions, the directorate makes sure that professionals — ie taxi drivers — can speak the language that most people speak.

I am not sure that that is their job. I’d prefer to file a complaint with a firm if I got a cab driver that didn’t speak Estonian. But I’d hardly call it “ethnic cleansing,” joker.

I’m generally not one to accept claims at face value. I respectfully note your knowledge and interest in the Baltic region.

“this in no way okays behavior like the roughing up of diplomatic personnel.”

Oh come on.

I’ve been on demos outside American embassies since I was a kid – from Vietnam to Iraq.

Demonstrating outside an Embassy is a legitimate protest in every other country. Why not in Moscow?

By the way, the British Ambassador has been needled by Nashi kids for months – ever since he went to an anti-Putin rally during the G8.

He hasn’t chickened out or made ridiculous claims. They haven’t even scratched his Jag.

I suppose you also believe the Estonian stories that their computers were hacked by ‘people with Kremlin IP addresses” and that “Russia has attacked the whole of the EU”.

Nothing was stopping the Russian population from voting for any other candidates running in the last presidential election. Nothing kept Yavlinsky and Kasparov from entering that presidential race. All of those who ran in it had plenty of media and travel time.

You miss the point on the statue’s dismantling. They way it was done ignited a perfectly understandable outrage.

As for the Bronze Soldier, it needed to be moved. It was a magnet for trouble in the heart of the city.

There were graves buried under the trolleybus stop (so honored, no one is really sure who they were or under what circumstances they were killed). They are going to be identified, and moved to the military cemetery in the city.

Oh, the cemetery. I went there on May 1 to see the Bronze dude. Without that ugly wall and the hammer and sickle emblem making a halo over his head, I thought that it was actually a pretty decent work of art. It’s in a much better place, IMO. And riots aren’t going to start in the midst of the honored dead.