Russians Riot in Tallin, Estonia

Oh yeah- the Czar over in Kremlin is already preparing the secret military operation "Scandinavian Invasion". Call it the Winter War 2.0.

This whole affair now seems nothing more than Russian interest groups probing the ground in the Baltics and the reactions from others. It wasn't about the statue- that was a simply pretense. Estonia however should have waited if it had anticipated the recent events.

Primary reason for this incident is most likely the fact that there are (several?) elections in Russia this year...

I'm not overly worried out here, but the V-day celebrations will give us a clue about Kremls plans.

I hope kreml aint planning a WinterWar 2, since i seriously hate OP-duty at winter, so Putin if you want war, at least have the decency to do at good weather (joke)

There are not gonna be much in the way of election in Russia. Putin's parliamentary party will win with whatever candidate they put forward, and not because of any vote rigging or other BS. They will win because 65% of people will vote for them because they are scared of any more changes and new faces. So far I think it is down to two candidates, neither of whom seems to be fully capable of holding up the "house that Putin built". Either way it is not good, nor is the opposition offering any obvious political talent.

Who benefited from the riots in Talin- I have no idea. Putin simply didn't need them for popularity. The "two candidates" didn't speak much throughout the whole affair. That is why I believe this was simply probing of the ground by Russia. For what? Maybe new energy export policy? Maybe the reaction of US and the relation to the ABM dispute?

[edit on 4-5-2007 by maloy]

[edit on 4-5-2007 by maloy]

Northwolf, Russia's invasion into finland during WW2 was not justified. There is no need to point out the soviet erasons for it since you and I both know they were made up. Keep in mind you were NOT the only country to get invaded in this war that had nothing to do with the countries fighting at the time. No one here is trying to justify this move from Stalin's part as you can see, don't expect anyone to either.

Now some guy up there was claiming the following:
"Actually the whole riot in Tallinn is bought by russian politics side. At first it was organized - there was selected people, paid them to make a first wave of riot. Now they some of them are paid 5 euros for hour, others just make some joy of destruction.
And now about statue - it was simple statue, actually nobody cares about that statue, except that sometimes there was gathering people to drink vodka."

So who was it organized by? Last time I checked most Russians living in Estonia don't have much - where are they getting the funds you're talking about from? Nobody cares about it - except all those that fought on the eastern fromt and especially in that particular theater of it you dip. Keep in mind they might not even be living in Estonia. Oh and so according to you Russians are good people, just drunks who would protest under "some" monument for cash?

Now one more for Northwolf here - since you seem to be protecting Estonians so much on them being occupied by Russians and such - where were you when they were raising a monument to the 22nd SS division there? (actually I can't remember if it was latvia lithuania or estonia, they're all the same bunch to me)? I doubt you had little to say against this judging by your previous comments. Neither did the EU say much about this have they. And the fact that in doing this they trampled on every single soldier who fought the germans on the eastern fromt is simply ignored. Keep in mind this isn't the only monument to be removed. Yhea it will be moved to a military cemetary, full honors, now that there is a fuss about it that is. How many monuments to SOLDIERS, not ideological commies, have been torn down in that country and scraped? You know exactly where i'm coming from on this. Now you try to tell me otherwise. Try to tell me this isn't done to rub an insult into Russia's face.

Regards,
Maestro

Estonia's agenda is simple and strait-forward. Estonia wants to rid itself of the Russian minority, whom they feel are hindering their progress towards Democracy, burger kings, and NATO bases (or whatever else they want from their new Western suitor). They took down this statue as a political move to show the Russian minority that they and their interests are not welcome in Estonia. Almost any move they make, is meant to drive a wedge between them and the Russian minority. This is working, and the response shown during riots WAS EXPECTED. Honestly I don't think Estonia will be able to get the Russians to leave, and obviously the Russians don't want to be treated as a dispriveledged minority. Both sides are testing the ground for the inevitable.

Maestro; 22nd SS was an Hungarian voluntary unit, i don't have any knowledge about statues being erected for them.

As for the statues, Estonia has allowed majority of soviet era statues to remain in-place, had they done this 15 years ago there wouldn't have been any fuss about this. Estonian (ethnic russian) teachers are now been accused of spreading soviet history beliefs and agitating these riots.

And if Red Army volunteers can have statues, why not those who joined SS to keep their countries out of Soviet sphere of influence? After UK and France allied with USSR it's not like there were much of choise for ally for smaller countries...

Ps. Myt guess is as good as yours on the origins of riot money; naturally FSB comes to my mind.

Pps. Estonian president Ilves has been invited to visit the White House as soon as possible.