Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Tallinn's war on European history

Tallinn's war on European history 
 
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov referred to the Estonian Parliament's
January 11th decision on the "protection of wartime burials" as sacrilege
and a mockery of the memory of those who fought for European freedom. 
Despite its respectable-sounding name, this example of Russophobic
legislation permits the removal of fraternal graves and the dismantling of
monuments to Soviet soldiers who died in the fighting to liberate Estonia
from the Nazis in September 1944. 
The nationalists and radicals in Tallinn cannot wait to do this. Estonian
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has promised to send bulldozers to the burial
sites in May. He does not conceal that the new law's first and foremost
victim will be the monument to the soldier-liberator at Tonismagi in
downtown Tallinn. There are plans to move this impressive sculpture of a
Soviet soldier to some God-forsaken place, and probably even dismantle it:
head with a cask, machine-gun, and knee-high boots. 
The Bronze Soldier may not be the only victim of humiliation. There are
265 burial sites of Soviet soldiers, including individual and common
graves. All in all, 168,855 soldiers were buried in Estonia. In order to
erase the memory of the exploits of these soldiers from what is now a
foreign country, Tallinn will have to spend years on an enormous
construction and landscaping project. 
In Russia, these plans have caused a mounting wave of indignation. Sergei
Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said
that this decision on the removal of monuments was a historical mistake.
"This law is a disgrace for Estonia and for the Estonian people. Fighting
against monuments is counterproductive and immoral, all the more so with
the monuments to those who freed Estonia and Latvia from the Nazi yoke,"
he said. 
The State Duma intends to make a special statement on response measures.
"We should give a timely and tough answer. Among other things, we should
not maintain contacts with those politicians who have initiated and passed
this law," Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said. 
Head of the Duma committee on international affairs Konstantin Kosachev
has gone even further. He suggests applying the Russian law on economic
sanctions during emergencies. In this case, Estonia would not be able to
use Russian air space and ports, while customs tariffs and duties paid by
Tallinn could be raised. 
The Russian response is so emotional because bulldozing the Bronze Soldier
is not the only caprice of the nationalist radicals. It is yet another
symbol of the glaring suppression by the Estonian authorities of the
rights of the Russian minority, which accounts for around one third of the
total population. Recently, an Amnesty International report with the
unusually imperative title "Linguistic minorities in Estonia:
Discrimination must end" has drawn public attention to this aberration in
the center of the European Union (EU). 
The document states that hundreds of thousands of Russian-speaking
"non-citizens" are deprived of access to jobs and higher education. Here
is just one telltale example: in 2005, the unemployment rate was no more
than 5% for ethnic Estonians, but it was 13% for Russian speakers. The
Russophobic Estonian authorities have been quite resourceful: they have
deprived the Russian speakers of the right to be covered by the law on the
cultural autonomy of national minorities - and hence the EU framework
convention on the latter's protection - using the casuistic excuse that
this law only applies to Estonian citizens. 
You are not a citizen? Then you are not entitled to a job or education in
Estonia, or any EU democratic rights for that matter. 
The quagmire of lawlessness is fertile soil for the nationalist radicals
that are in power in Estonia. By means of actions such as the law on
dismantling monuments to Soviet soldiers, they pursue narrow, selfish
interests: protecting their political positions and lucrative jobs. This
is what prominent Russian political scientist Sergei Markov said about
them: "They are the same as the Ku Klux Klan, which could occupy positions
in American government agencies only as long as inequality between blacks
and whites existed. As soon as equal rights were established, all Ku Klux
Klan members were thrown from bodies of power. This is why the Ku Klux
Klan was interested in preserving inequality." 
The Bronze Soldier and the common graves of Soviet fighters will
eventually find a place where they will be revered. Konstantin Titov,
governor of the Samara Region, declared the other day that his region was
ready to accept the monument and pay all expenses for its transportation.
The Kremlin has charged the Defense Ministry with taking care of Soviet
military graves abroad. 
But this is not even the point. The soldier-liberator at Tonismagi who
gave his life for the freedom of Estonians, is now defending the history
of Europe and its democratic values. The EU, represented by its
institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg, cannot turn a blind eye to this. 
-- 
Qultura politica di Tonibaruch su It.Politica.Internazionale :
Tonibaruch: "Chomsky... uno svitato filonazista"
http://groups.google.it/group/it.politica.internazionale/msg/4fcafdb551331642?dmode=source&hl=3Dit
 
Tonibaruch: "Hai per caso uno sfogo purulento tutto capillari e siero
presso il buco del culo e il cazzo di coniglio tutto raggrinzito e a
chiazze che ti macchia le mutande e la braghetta?"
http://groups.google.it/group/it.politica.internazionale/msg/1f324d4f5a1c4d94?dmode=source&hl=it
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 RONF.... PSSS.....RONF....
E anche oggi hai dato il tuo quotidiano contributo da mentecatto
parafascista.



No, ti sbagli. Il mio contributo antinegazionista  lo do' ridendo in
faccia ai tuoi monumenti di latta che andranno presto a finire in
qualche dimenticatoio sovietico, nostalgico e revanscista.
Di sicuro la Russia i paesi baltici non li rivedra' mai a meno di non
invadere di nuovo l'Occidente, cosa per cui non ha piu' fortunatamente
le armi, e magari neanche la volonta' politica. Rosica pure, fesso.
Am.