EU to help end embassy 'siege'
2007-05-01 22:07
Moscow - The European Union has promised to help end a virtual siege of the Estonian embassy in Moscow sparked by the removal of a Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn, said Estonia's foreign minister Urmas Paet on Tuesday.
Paet said he had spoken to his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeir, who "promised speedy assistance from the European Union to normalise the situation around the Estonian embassy in Moscow."
Germany holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
Estonia's President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has described the Moscow embassy protest as "psycho-terror".
Chanting slogans
"Nearly two dozen citizens of Estonia are in the embassy building, as if taken hostage. Other citizens of Estonia are blocked from entering the embassy," he said.
About 100 youths from pro-Kremlin organisations Young Guard and Ours have ringed the Estonian embassy since Friday, chanting anti-Estonian government slogans and pointing the barrel of a green inflatable tank at it.
The protest came after Estonian authorities removed a controversial Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn for relocation to a military cemetery.
Estonians see the statue - a monument to Red Army soldiers who died while fighting fascist forces during World War 2 - as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.