Putin jabs at Estonia at WWII parade

Putin jabs at Estonia at WWII parade

Estonia's removal of a Red Army monument last month from the centre of Tallinn infuriated the Kremlin and sparked violence in the Estonian capital as ethnic Russians rioted.

Without naming Estonia, Putin made a clear reference to the removal of the statue.

"Those who are trying today to belittle this invaluable experience, those who desecrate monuments to the heroes of the war are insulting their own people (and) sowing discord and new distrust between states and people," he said.

Putin congratulated veterans in the shadow of the Kremlin's walls before making his short speech dedicated to the tens of millions of Russians who fell during World War Two.

The Kremlin has sought to foster memories of the Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War, as a way to forge Russian unity after the upheavals and rancour which followed the fall of the Soviet Union.

In Belarus, where one in four citizens died in the war, President Alexander Lukashenko denounced Estonia and criticized Poland over its failure to reopen an exhibition honoring Russian victims of the Auschwitz death camp.

"Acts of mockery of the heroes and victims of war give rise to anger and indignation," Lukashenko told veterans in the centre of Minsk.

"These include the dismantling of the monument to the liberators in Estonia and the closure by Polish authorities of the Soviet exhibition at the Auschwitz camp museum."

Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing basic rights, obliquely accused Western countries of "using war as an instrument of foreign policy," citing NATO interventions in Afghanistan and ex-Yugoslavia.

Russian state television channels showed live coverage of the Moscow parade, with fighter jets, drummer boys and an inspection of the troops by Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who rode around Red Square in an open Soviet ZiL limousine.

Most Russians say the Soviet Union liberated Eastern Europe from fascism; Moscow's former satellites view the Red Army as an occupation force which crushed their independence.

Estonia, annexed by Moscow in 1940, has faced a barrage of criticism from Russian politicians for moving the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier. Poland has shelved laws that would allow it to remove monuments to Soviet soldiers.

Various Russian parties and parliament have appealed to President Vladimir Putin to impose sanctions on Estonia. Cutting energy transits via the Baltic state, a boycott of its goods and severing diplomatic relations are among the proposed steps.