Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Russia

Moscow Says Russian Killed During Tallinn Riots

Tallinn demonstration (ITAR-TASS)

April 28, 2007 -- The Russian Foreign Ministry says a Russian national was killed during rioting in Tallinn that was sparked by the Estonian government's removal of a Soviet World War II memorial.

TEXT SIZE - +

April 28, 2007

Estonian officials said earlier that a man was stabbed to death in the April 26 riot. It was not immediately clear whether Moscow was referring to the same man.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Estonian law enforcement agencies of using what it called "excessive force" against protesters.

Meanwhile, police in Tallinn say about 70 people were injured overnight during the second night of unrest linked to the removal of the memorial. They say about 600 people have been detained.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has threatened that Moscow would take what he called "serious steps" in response to the removal of the monument -- which memorialized Soviet Red Army soldiers who fought against the Nazis during World War II.

(compiled from agency reports)

RFE/RL Russia Report

SUBSCRIBE For news and analysis on Russia by e-mail, subscribe to "RFE/RL Russia Report."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin covers his face during a conference of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on February 9.

Administrative (Resource) Breakdown

Administrative resources make up the glue that holds authoritarian structures like Putin's power vertical together. And there have been plenty of signs recently that this glue is weakening. More

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More