Estonian foreign minister refuses to meet Russian delegation

May 1, 2007, 13:43 GMT

Tallinn - Estonia's foreign minister cancelled Tuesday a meeting with a Russian delegation sent to defuse a row over Estonia's removal of a Soviet statue in a further blow to relations.

'I will not meet with a delegation that spreads only lies regarding events in Estonia and whose objective is not the accurate portrayal of the situation, but rather election campaigning,' Urmas Paet said, according to a foreign ministry press release.

'The election campaigning and slander which have characterized the behaviour of the State Duma (Russia's parliament) delegates in Estonia is utterly disgraceful,' he added.

Estonia and Russia have been at loggerheads for months over Estonian plans to remove a Red Army war memorial from its current location in central Tallinn to a nearby war cemetery.

Estonians view the monument as a symbol of their country's illegal occupation by the USSR, while most ethnic Russians see it as a symbol of Russians' sacrifices in the war against Nazism.

On Thursday the Estonian authorities began fencing off the memorial prior to its eventual removal. The move triggered the worst rioting Estonia has seen since the Russian Revolution, as gangs of youths ran riot through Tallinn on Thursday and Friday nights.

At the height of the rioting the government ordered the statue's immediate removal, rather than waiting for preliminary excavations to be completed as planned. The move sparked fury in Russia.

On Saturday German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for dialogue to resume. As a result, a delegation of Duma deputies was sent to Estonia.

But even before the deputation left for Tallinn on Monday it fell foul of controversy when one of its members said that the Estonian government should step down over its handling of the crisis.

And within hours of its arrival the situation worsened as Estonian officials said that the Russians had refused to attend meetings, and the Russian group said that they had been refused access to the original monument site.

By Monday evening the controversial statue had been re-erected in its new home, where the delegation visited it on Tuesday morning.

But after the visit they reportedly accused the Estonian side of having cut it to pieces in order to transport it - a claim the Estonian authorities vehemently denied.

'I believe that it is out of line to spread lies about the (statue), to make demands for the resignation of the Estonian government and to take random vicious statements as well as not to participate in agreed meetings,' Paet said.

The situation on the streets of Tallinn remained calm on Tuesday afternoon. One gathering of some 200 ethnic Russians broke up peacefully, while cars staged go-slow protests in the city centre, police said.

But with the Russian deputation due to hold their own press conference before their departure on Tuesday evening, and the accusations already flying, their attempt to defuse the crisis seems to have done more harm than good.