The statue was not removed from Tallinn, but rather relocated to a cemetery near its original location.

The "Russians" did push the Nazis out as they moved towards the west. rouble was, the Russians had no intention of withdrawing back to their pre-war borders.

One unwelcome invader was simply displaced by another. Which one was less brutal and overbearing? We will never know.

It is not about the statue. It is about undigging the bones of those soldiers. Happy V Day everyone in Europe ( for those who remember ).

Nope, it's not about the coffins of a few Soviet soldiers (who are buried beneath an intersection near the statue, not beneath the statue itself). It's about the Russian ethnic minority in Estonia flexing its political muscle, annoyed that they are no longer the masters in a country that they treated as a colony for fifty years. The legacy of Soviet occupation in Estonia is chiefly pollution from heavy industry, closely followed by a Russian minority that was swollen by resettlement following World War II - part of a plan to Russify outlying regions of the empire thereby creating a localised opposition against the independence demands of the original inhabitants.

1) There is a great deal of talk from Estonians about how Russians are invaders. That was certainly the case many years ago, but most Russians living their now were born there and in many cases so were their parents. I accept that many believe that people should be punished for the actions of their parents, grandparents etc. I am not one of them.

2) Most of the trouble in Tallinn has been caused by general purpose hooligans. The sort of people who in the UK would be rioting because their football team lost.

3) It is perhaps instructive to compare Estonia with Lithuania. They both have very similar 20th century histories, but everyone who was a permanent resident on the day that Lithuania gained independence became a citizen. The same is not true in Estonia where there are still a great number of stateless Russians.

4) Estonia gained independence in 1991, therefore, any Russian younger than their mid-thirties can't regret that they no longer run the country, since they never did.

5) Is Amnesty International prejudiced against Estonians? I don't know, but they certainly have plenty to say about their language laws (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR510012007?open&of=ENG-EST). In my non-legal opinion, Estonia is going to end up in front of the EU for breaching EU laws designed to protect linguistic minorities.

6) Very little known fact: Consider my wife's grandmother. She lives in Russia in the same cottage she was born in and speaks only Russian. She sounds like the sort of person that the Estonians would want nothing to do with doesn't she? But, between the two world wars, the bit of Russia where she lives was part of the first Estonian Republic. As a result of this, the Estonian government will give citizenship to her and any of her decedents. My wife's cousin doesn't speak a word of Estonian and apart from 2 short holidays has never set foot in the place, but because of her grandmother she now has an Estonian and thus EU passport. Meanwhile, many Russians who were born in Tallinn and have lived there all their lives, but also don't speak Estonian remain stateless. This seems a little inconsistent to me.

I have been going to Estonia for sometime now and what is strange is the country has been independant for quite some time now so why has it just kicked off now.

One site which I can no longer access is the Estonian newspaper www.postimees.ee which is curious as that has Estonian and Russian versions on line!

The only reason Estonia was accepted into the EU is to annoy Russia.

They break all the EU social minority laws, they regularly hold Nazi war veterans marches, need I say more?

And EU does nothing – yet, Kosovo, with NON indigenous Albanian population not allowed to take over (therefore “persecuted”)– EU and America do everything in their power to help.

No wonder the Russians are demonstrating, and organising DDOS attacks – there comes a point, when a person cannot take any more insults, and they organise.

The only thing achieved by EU inaction over the Nazi regime of eSStonia, is to unite all Russians, especially youngsters against the west.

No one can deny the enormous contribution of the soviet union to the WWII, and digging up the war dead, because it remind the poor Nazis of their defeat was a huge F.U. to Russians (and Ukrainians, and Byelorussians, and Serbs, and....)

The British honour the millions of Soviet sols, the French, even the Germans – and the Austrians, both of whom have enormous status to the Russian solder in the centre of their capital cities. Why should eSStonia be allowed to desecrate the war dead and get away with it?

And Finally, Russia does not have any imperialistic ambitions as is frequently commented in the press, - to give you an example : if British expats will get mistreated by the Spanish, and Brittan reacts angrily, would anyone say that this is because Brittan is suffering from imperialistic ambitions?