The Estonian ambassador in Moscow Marina Kaljurand fell victim to a physical attack in Moscow on the morning of May 2. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ehtel Halliste said that the ambassador was physically attacked with a tear gas like substance sprayed into her face. The attack took place while Kaljurand was giving a press conference at the editorial office of the newspaper Argumenty in Fakty. As The Baltic Times went to press, the ambassador's car was being surrounded by members of the pro-Kremlin Nashi (Ours) youth organization, who had gathered outside the press conference. The ambassador was not in the car at the time, and at last report her driver said he would wait it out inside.
The websites of several Estonian government institutions came under cyber attack on April 27, the day the Bronze Soldier monument was removed, and again early on May 2, BNS reported. Access to all the government institutions' web sites has been restored. Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said that it had been established on the basis of IP addresses that the cyber attacks had come from certain computers and persons in Russian government institutions, including the Russian president's administration. Paet said he had evidence to back his accusation.
Estonia's police have turned to the power of the Internet to help identify people involved in the rioting and looting that took place in Tallinn on April 26 and 27. The police are asking Tallinn residents to log on to http://tuvasta.politsei.ee and try to identify the faces of the looters. Those that have been circled have already been identified. The vast majority of those taking part didn't try to hide their faces from television and press cameras while the riots were being covered. The site is in Estonian, Russian and English.
The Russian-language daily Vesti in its April 30 publication demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, calling him "bloody" in blood-red print on its front page. Vesti, a paper published by the Juri Vilms Foundation, is connected with the opposition Center Party, whose leader, Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar, has flung severe criticism at the prime minister over the handling of the Bronze Soldier affair. Meanwhile an Internet campaign by the Estonian Nationalist Movement had by May 1 collected a total of 66,370 signatures supporting Savisaar's own resignation.
On April 28 three leaders of the Night Vigil group, staunch defenders of the Bronze Soldier monument, were remanded into custody by police. Dmitri Linter, Maxim Reva and Mark Siryk will be held for the duration of pretrial investigation. A criminal probe is being conducted by the security police to identify and bring to justice those people responsible for organizing the disturbances.
