TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Two days before national elections, Estonia’s president on Friday accused Russia of failing to confront the “barbarous” legacy of the Soviet Union’s five-decade occupation of his country.
Estonian-Russian relations have reached a new low over a controversial plan to tear down a World War II monument in Tallinn that honors Soviet soldiers.
“The Russian government claims patrimony for the victory in World War II … but absolutely denies any connection to that same regime’s completely barbarous, heinous acts, crimes against humanity,” Ilves, 53, told The Associated Press in an interview.
“I think this is a largely a problem in dealing with history,” he said.
The victory over Nazi Germany is a source of profound pride for millions of Russians, and President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed the role of the Soviet army as a liberator of nations that came under Nazi control during World War II. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1944, after the Red Army ousted Nazi troops that had invaded three years earlier.
“The Soviet Union did not liberate anybody,” Ilves told AP at the presidential palace in Tallinn. “If you start killing people and deporting them on an industrial scale, is that liberation?”
The U.S.-educated Ilves noted that Russia on Dec. 20 still marks the creation of the first Soviet security agency and predecessor to the KGB, the Cheka.
“On Dec. 20, 2006, Moscow is festooned with banners,” said Ilves, who took office last year. “The president of Russia comes and says ‘Chekists Day.’ I think that indicates an inability to really come to terms, or accept, the previous regime’s role is not something very good.”
He rejected the notion that there was room for different views of the Soviet legacy in the Baltics.
“The fact that 30,000 people in two days were shoved into cattle cars and sent to Siberia is not something that you have open to interpretation,” Ilves said, referring to mass deportations of Estonians in March 1949.
Russian officials have warned of “irreversible consequences” in relations between the two neighbors if Estonia acts on plans to remove the Bronze Soldier monument to Soviet soldiers and the war grave below it.
Last month, Ilves vetoed a bill calling for the removal of the statue, which many Estonians consider a bitter reminder of Soviet occupation. The president said the measure violated the constitution, but made clear his move should not be seen as yielding to Russian pressure.
Ilves on Friday said the dispute had been “absurdly blown up,” and accused Estonian politicians of using the monument as an instrument to win votes in Sunday’s election.
He also suggested Russia’s reaction was excessive, and said Estonia was not looking for a conflict with its giant neighbor.
“There are 140 million people in Russia. There are 1.3 million in Estonia,” Ilves said. “We’re not looking to have a fight with them.”
