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Moscow Mayor Proposes Boycott of Estonia
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, speaking at a meeting of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions on Monday, has proposed a boycott of Estonia. “The administration of Moscow and the Moscow City Duma are proposing a boycott of everything connected with Estonia for the actions it has taken in relation to our Soldier and the graves of our fighters,” he stated, adding that the Estonian government “has shown its most negative face, even Fascist, it can be said.”
One person was killed and dozens wounded in rioting that took place after the removal of the monument to the Soldier Liberator from the site in downtown Tallinn where it has stood sine 1947. The monument has been relocated to Military Cemetery in that city. The coffins of 13 Soviet soldiers who died displacing Nazi forces from the city are being removed from the same site. There are about 450 Soviet military graves in Estonia where 50,000 Soviet soldiers are buried.
Estonian authorities denied a Russian State Duma delegation permission to visit the site of the excavation of the graves. “They promised that we would visit Tonismagi Hill and see what us happening there with our own eyes,” delegation head Nikolay Kovalev, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Veterans' Affairs, complained. He said that the Estonians stated that an archeological dig was taking place and “the presence of politicians, ether Russian or Estonian, was inappropriate.” He also objected to the use of a bulldozer in the digging.
www.kommersant.com
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