Crews removed a replica of a T-34 tank that sat atop the monument outside the city of Narva in Russian-speaking eastern Estonia and placed it on a truck that transported it to the Estonian War Museum in Viimsi, a town north of the capital. Tallinn. The monument commemorates Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany during World War II. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said a neutral grave would replace the tank replica and the memorial outside Narva “will remain a dignified place to remember the dead.” Estonia, which shares a nearly 300-kilometer (180-mile) border with Russia, has taken a hard line against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The prime minister said removing symbols such as the tank was necessary to protect public order and prevent Moscow from sowing discord in Estonia, a country with a significant ethnic Russian minority. “No one wants to see our belligerent and hostile neighbor stirring up tensions in our home,” Callas said. “We will not give Russia the opportunity to use the past to disturb the peace in Estonia.” Like its Baltic neighbors, Estonia has removed many monuments glorifying the Soviet Union or communist leaders since the country regained its independence in 1991. In 2007, the relocation of a World War II monument to a Red Army soldier Army in Tallinn sparked days of riots. The government and many Estonians saw the Tallinn monument as a painful reminder of five decades of Soviet occupation, while some ethnic Russians saw the move as an attempt to erase their history. After the city council in Narva decided that the replica tank had to go, a crowd gathered around the monument to protest the plan. A total of seven Soviet-era monuments in Narva are to be removed, the government said on Tuesday. The city, whose 57,500 residents are mostly Russian-speaking, is located about 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of Tallinn and is separated from the Russian city of Ivangorod by the Narva River. Russian officials criticized Estonia’s attempt to remove the remaining Soviet-era monuments. “We find it outrageous. A war with a shared history, to get rid of monuments to those who saved Europe from fascism is, of course, outrageous. This does not make any nation look good, including Estonia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month. Earlier this month, Estonia decided to ban people from neighboring Russia on tourist visas from entering the northernmost Baltic country as a result of the war in Ukraine. The European Union, of which Estonia is a member, has already banned air travel from Russia following Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. However, Russians can still travel overland to Estonia and apparently take flights to other European destinations.
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