Kremlin escalates Estonian row over removing Soviet-era tank

Russia escalated a dispute over the removal of a Soviet-era memorial in neighbouring Estonia, compounding tensions in a European Union member state that has fiercely condemned the invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman on Friday called the plans to remove a World War II tank in the eastern Estonian city of Narva, which sits on the border with Russia, a “war against history,” according to Bloomberg. 

Estonia’s president had previously reinforced the government’s pledge to remove communist-era monuments, saying Putin’s invasion had discredited the memory of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

“Putin’s order for the Russian military to attack Ukraine on February 24 has changed the meaning of many World War II memorials in Europe,” President Alar Karis said in a statement. “I myself have seen in Ukraine the pain and sorrow caused by almost identical Russian tanks.”

The west-facing T-34 tank, decorated with a red star and resting on a pedestal next to the Narva River, was erected by the Soviet authorities in 1970 on the occasion of the 1944 Battle of Narva. Estonia, together with Latvia and Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union until it regained independence in 1991.

Speaking in Moscow, Putin's Spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the order to remove the monument from its pedestal.

“The war on history, moreover with a common history and the removal of monuments to those who saved Europe from fascism, is, of course, scandalous,” Peskov said.

Pressure to remove hundreds of Soviet monuments is cutting the country’s cultural divide, with Russian speakers making up nearly a quarter of the population.

In Narva, where some 57,000 residents speak mostly Russian, officials have refused to dismantle the monument, a favourite backdrop for locals for wedding photos. Earlier this week, protesters went to the site of the monument to protest its removal.

A similar row over the relocation of a Soviet monument in the capital Tallinn in 2007 sparked riots and a cyber attack on Estonian government websites, with authorities blaming the Kremlin.