Moscow has put the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, and other Baltic states officials on a wanted list, as Tallinn warns of an imminent Russian military buildup along its border.
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Estonian state secretary, Taimar Peterkop, the Lithuanian culture minister, Simonas Kairys, and Kallas were accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers”, a reference to the removal of Soviet-era second world war memorials
“This is only the start,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel. “Crimes against the memory of the world’s liberators from nazism and fascism must be prosecuted.” Russian authorities have not revealed the exact charges against the three.
Moscow has placed senior Ukrainian officials and generals on its wanted list since the start of the war, but Kallas is the first known head of government to be sought by Moscow.
The Estonian prime minister has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, leading efforts to increase military assistance to Kyiv and tighten sanctions against Russia.
Kallas called Russia’s move “nothing surprising”. She wrote on X: “The Kremlin now hopes this move will help to silence me and others – but it won’t. The opposite. I will continue my strong support to Ukraine. I will continue to stand for increasing Europe’s defence.”
Moscow’s decision to add Kallas to its wanted list will further increase tension in the region at a time when many western capitals have sounded the alarm over a growing military threat from Russia.
When asked by reporters about Kallas on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the Estonian leader “took hostile acts against our country and historical memory”.
The removal of Soviet-era monuments has been a delicate issue in Estonia, a former Soviet republic from 1944 until 1991 where nearly a quarter of the population of 1.3 million people are ethnic Russians.
The process has accelerated since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, with Kallas pledging to remove all communist monuments in public spaces. “We have decided … Soviet monuments must be removed from public spaces and we will do it as quickly as possible,” Kallas said in the summer of 2022 when officials removed a Soviet tank memorial from Narva, a largely Russian-speaking city close to the Russian border.
Estonia has been anxious to avoid some of the unrest it faced in 2007 after it removed a statue in Tallinn known as the Bronze Soldier, which led to two nights of rioting and looting, followed by a major cyber-attack that Estonian officials blamed on Russia.
The country has also moved to counter pro-Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine by banning from cable television four Russian channels, a major source of news for many older ethnic Russians.
Tensions remain high, and on Tuesday Estonia’s foreign intelligence service warned that Russia intended to double the number of its troops stationed along its border with the Baltic states and Finland as part of preparations for a potential military conflict with Nato within the next 10 years.
Kaupo Rosin, the director general of the Estonian service, told reporters before publication of his agency’s annual report: “Russia has chosen a path which is a long-term confrontation … and the Kremlin is probably anticipating a possible conflict with Nato within the next decade or so.
“We will highly likely see an increase of manpower, about doubling perhaps. We will see an increase in armed personnel carriers, tanks, artillery systems over the coming years.”
Rosin said a military attack by Russia was “highly unlikely” in the short term, partly because Russia had to keep troops in Ukraine, but he called on Europe to get prepared by rearming.
“If we are not prepared, the likelihood [of a military Russian attack] would be much higher than without any preparation,” Rosin added.
In an interview with the conservative journalist Tucker Carlson last week, Putin dismissed western warnings, saying his country had “no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else”.
Russia has put several dozen Baltic politicians of various levels on the wanted list, including the former Latvian interior minister Marija Golubeva, according to data first analysed by the Russian independent outlet Mediazona.
Latvia has similarly announced plans to remove its Soviet memorials from public spaces, and it drew Moscow’s ire last year when it demolished a nearly 80-metre obelisk erected during the Soviet rule of Latvia.
All three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – had already expelled Russian diplomats from their countries amid tensions over the conflict in Ukraine. Relations with Moscow have remained tense since they gained independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union, which they have viewed as an occupying power.
