Estonian Prime Minister Kaia Kalas at a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, October 18, 2023/Reuters
Russia has put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas and other senior officials in the Baltic states on its wanted list for their involvement in the destruction of Soviet monuments.
This is another deterioration in relations between Moscow and the former Soviet republics, which have been trying to shake off their past as part of the Soviet Union since the beginning of the war in Ukraine about two years ago.
The most senior figure on the list, which appears in the database of the Russian Interior Ministry, is the Prime Minister of Estonia, who, according to the Kremlin, is wanted for "desecration of historical memory."
The list also includes the Minister of Culture of Lithuania and members of the previous parliament in Latvia.
According to the Russian news agency "Tass", the officials are accused of "destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers, an offense punishable by up to five years in prison according to the Russian law book. The
three Baltic states are part of the European Union and NATO, and lead the offensive line in the alliance against Moscow.
Despite their membership in the military alliance led by the United States, they fear that they may be Vladimir Putin's next target.
Estonian intelligence warned earlier today that Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West in the next decade.
"The Kremlin hopes this step will help silence me and others - but it won't help them," the Estonian prime minister wrote on X.
"I will continue my firm support for Ukraine. I will continue to stand for increasing European security."
She added that Russia's move - largely symbolic - is not surprising.
These politicians are only at risk of arrest if they cross the border into Russia, an unlikely scenario in the midst of the war between Moscow and Kiev.
A dismantled Soviet monument in Riga, Latvia, August 23, 2023/Reuters
The three Baltic states were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, occupied by the Nazis and then returned to Moscow's control until they gained their independence with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
They destroyed most of the monuments built during the Soviet period, including those commemorating the Red Army soldiers killed in World War II.
In response, the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered a criminal investigation.
"This is just the beginning," warned today the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
"Crimes against the memory of the liberators of the world from Nazism and fascism must be punished."
The Minister of Culture of Lithuania, Simmons Kairis, said that his inclusion in the list means that "I acted in an active and principled manner."
About 60 of the hundred members of Latvia's previous parliament, which was dissolved in November 2022, were included in the wanted database of the Russian Ministry of the Interior, which did not specify the offenses against them.
Several dozen other Baltic politicians have been added to Russia's wanted list, including mayors, local councilors and former Latvian interior minister Maria Golubeva.
Kalas said in 2022 that Estonian authorities would dismantle 200 to 400 Soviet monuments, and a Soviet tank commemorating the Russian-speaking town of Narva was removed in August.
In Latvia, an 84-meter-high building, built to commemorate the Soviet victory in World War II, was crushed by a bulldozer.
Tens of thousands of Russian speakers in the country used to gather every May 9 around the monument, but their gatherings were banned after the Russian invasion.
Lithuania, for its part, removed dozens of monuments to Soviet soldiers in 2022, including a large group of statues in a Vilnius cemetery.
Ukraine, whose national and historical identity Russia is trying to erase, is also in the midst of a de-Sovietization process in which it dismantles monuments from the Soviet Union and renames places named after Russian figures from history.
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