Russian got stabby with another Russian, according to the local media
Russia reacted furiously to the move and its upper house of parliament voted to ask President Vladimir Putin to sever relations with the small Baltic state.
The removal was carried out by surprise in the early hours after the worst violence seen in years in Estonia, including vandalism and looting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters. "The aim of the government decision was to avoid further possible actions against the public order," Estonia's government said in a statement.
Probably the smartest thing that the Estonian government has done during this entire fiasco. You want to riot? The monument is GONE. Not yours.
Russia, which has had troubled ties with Estonia since it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has protested against the plan to move the World War Two monument as an insult to those who fought fascism.
It has also angered local Russian-speakers, a large minority of around 300,000 in the country of 1.3 million. Estonians view it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet occupation.
Since it was a monument to the soldier-liberators that saved Tallinn from the Nazis, although they had left a week before in 1944, and the Soviets ripped the Estonian tricolor flag from the parliament building ...
"Yet again, we can qualify the actions of official Tallinn as sacrilegious and inhuman ...," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying.
Sacrilege, I say! Never mind those two (1940) (1944-1991) occupations!
"We are working to formulate a concrete reaction towards what has happened," he added. He said the move was harsh ahead of the May 9 anniversary of the end of World War Two, a popular public holiday in Russia.
By mid-morning the area around the statue was calm and traffic was flowing freely. Estonia said the statue was now somewhere under police control. People continued to clean up the streets and windows in many residential and office buildings nearby were smashed.
The vote by Russia's upper house of parliament on severing diplomatic ties with Estonia reflected Moscow's anger.
Don't let the door hit you in the bum ...
"We've seen enough of this mocking the dead and scoffing at the victory in World War Two," Russian news agencies quoted Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov as telling the chamber. The senators then backed the non-binding decision.
Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign relations committee at the Federation Council, said the events in Tallinn showed that "the war against fascism did not end on May 9, 1945".
Shouldn't that war continue first, at home, in the Putin Federation?
"This fight goes on and it will continue as long as there are grave-diggers who are ready to throw out from the graves those who defeated fascism," he told Russian television.
Yes, the brave fighters for the bronze monument are now looting kiosks and jewelry stores ...
The violence came amid strong feelings about the 2-metre high bronze statue of a World War Two Red Army soldier, set in a large stone wall in a park, which was erected in 1947.
The government said one man died in the disturbances, which began after more than 1,000 people gathered to protest on Thursday, after being stabbed in the subsequent violence. The government said 44 of the protesters and 13 police were injured and 300 people were arrested. Looters smashed windows, fires were started and cars overturned.
Estonia has said the monument is a public order problem ...
YOU THINK?
... as it attracts Estonian and Russian nationalists. It has also said it is more respectful to the dead to be buried in a cemetery.
Especially since no one is really sure who or what is buried in the park. See this document: link
The authorities had fenced off the area around the monument and the statue itself and erected a long white tent as they prepared to dig for the remains of any soldiers.
I was in the Old Town during the riots last night. Roving gangs of Russians youths breaking every window and cracking every skull that they could find.
Unfortunately, it seems like it's just the beginning, as I type this, there is fighting going on in Freedom Square in Talinn, and cars are being destroyed. Russians are reportedly coming in from the east and the Russian Federation to join the scrum.
Alcohol sales have been banned through May 2 in Tallinn.
Here's a statement from Estonia's president, Toomas Ilves. Very Sarkozy-like, I think: link
But I just watched 20 Russian teenaged girls on ETV demonstrating in the streets. Chanting "Rossija, Rossija!" and holding a banner that read "USSR forever - screw Estonia". More buildings are being destroyed, and other Estonian monuments are being defaced.
This will not end well. :-(