Wednesday passed peacefully in Tallinn and Riga as Russian-speakers, including many Soviet Army veterans, held events to commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. Residents and police had been watching events carefully, worried about a repeat of the kind of street riots sparked in Tallinn on April 26 and 27 by the planned removal of the Bronze Soldier monument from its location in the city center.
Police were out in force in Tallinn, where hundreds of people gathered at the Garrison Cemetery, the home of the controversial monument since April 30. The crowd there, whose number peaked at around 1,000 around mid-day, left thousands of flowers in memory of the sacrifices of Soviet soldiers who faught in the war.
Throughout the day visitors also placed flowers and balloons on the fence that surrounds the Tonismagi site where the Bronze Soldier once stood, but most did not stay long. A few dozen individuals stood on the sidewalk across the street from the site, but their number never grew to more than about 100. Dozens of foreign journalists were also on hand at Tonismagi.
Public meetings have been banned in the city until May 11, in an effort to avoid a repeat of the street riots of April 26 and 27, which were touched off by a demonstration against moving the monument, and the war grave nearby, from its place on Tonismagi.
Police allowed members of the public to place flowers at both sites, but said they would not allow any political speeches or incitements of hatred. Toward the end of the day police told Estonian Television that this May 9 was the most peaceful the city has seen in years.
In Riga a much larger gathering, numbering over 1,000, was held at the Victory Monument in Pardaugava. Our correspondent said the atmosphere there was relaxed and festive, with bands playing on a stage, crowds enjoying shashlyk (Caucasian-style kebabs) and children handing out flowers to the elderly. Apart from a scuffle earlier in the day during which three people were detained, events there too have been peaceful.
The only other actions reported so far by police at the event have been related to people being in a public place with an open alcohol container.
From a politics perspective, the most notable occurrence at the event came when Jakovs Pliners, a member of parliament from Latvia's leftist alliance For Human Rights in United Latvia (PCTVL), sang a patriotic war song in Russian and called Juris Dobelis, another member of parliament from Latvia's national alliance For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK (TB/LNNK), a Nazi.
"Nazis like Juris Dobelis say that we do not know the history -- but we know the history very well and we now what happened," he reportedly said.
