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Estonia's Prime Minister Kallas: On Russia's wanted list
Photo: Virginia Mayo/dpa
Russia has put Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on a wanted list. This emerges from a note that was posted on the Moscow Interior Ministry website on Tuesday. Accordingly, Kallas is wanted in Russia for “a criminal matter.” The Estonian State Secretary Taimar Peterkop and the Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys are also being sought.
It was not clear from the data what crime they were accused of. However, Russian Presidential Office spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow that Kallas was accused of hostile actions against Russia and "desecration of historical memory." The Russian news agency Tass quoted a source as saying that the three were accused of "destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers."
The government in Tallinn had previously given the green light for the removal of Soviet monuments from public spaces in the Baltic EU and NATO country. Since Russia's attack on Ukraine, a public debate has broken out about this. (Read more here).
As a result of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which has been going on for two years, relations between Moscow and the Baltic states are extremely tense. Kallas is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's harshest critics. She has been at the head of the government in Estonia since 2021.
aeh/AFP/Reuters