Estonia's Russian Associations to set up a crisis committee

  • 2007-02-16
  • By TBT staff
TALLINN - Associations of Estonia's Russian-speakers, fearing that a contentious Red Army monument at Tonismagi in downtown Tallinn will be moved to a less prominent spot, decided Thursday night to set up a crisis committee, the leader of the informal movement Nochnoi Dozor (Night Watch) told BNS.
At a meeting convened by the Constitution Party the crisis committee was formed and an action plan adopted, Dmitri Linter said.
"Considering the threat of relocation of the Tonismagi monument, participants in the meeting drew up a mobilization plan," Linter said.
In his words, Russian activists will be keeping watch at Tonismagi as long as the monument is in danger of being removed.
The parliament on Feb. 15 passed a bill on the removal of prohibited edifices incorporating into it an amendment declaring the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier at Tonismagi a forbidden structure and requiring the government to remove it within 30 days of the law coming into force.
The bill was backed by 46 deputies from the Reform and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union parties while 44 lawmakers from the Center, People's Union and the Social Democratic Party voted against.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said the bill clashed with the Constitution and he would not sign it into the law.