The Russians are upset that we in the West are "rewriting history." Said their foreign minister:
"Attempts to make a mockery of history are becoming an element and an instrument of the foreign policy of certain countries," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in televised comments at a ceremony honoring Russian diplomats who died during the war. "Unfortunately certain organizations such as NATO and the EU connive with these attempts."
"The memory of the victors does not fade, this memory is sacred to us, and attempts to relate to this memory blasphemously, to commit outrages against it, to rewrite history, cannot fail to anger us," Lavrov said, according to a Foreign Ministry transcript.
NATO and the EU sharply criticized the sometimes raucous protests by pro-Kremlin youth groups whose members picketed the Estonian Embassy in Moscow for a week, disrupting its operations. Along with the United States, they urged Russia to ensure security for the embassy and diplomats.
This represents stunning confusion on the part of the Russians.
Nobody is telling the Russians to forget their sacrifice. But who says that Estonians have to remember the same history that Russians do? Oh sure, when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union, Estonians had to remember the same history. But that was then. Estonia is free--and a member of NATO. That's really what angers the Soviets--I mean Russians. And keep in mind, we never recognized Soviet control of the Baltic states.
Of course, NATO membership has its privileges. One of them is telling the Russians to take a hike:
Via the Financial Times, Estonia’s president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, on suggestions from Moscow that his country should apologize for relocating that Soviet-era war memorial:“We are sorry that so many people were murdered by the Soviet regime.”
Now that's an excellent apology!
Mega Heh.
