RUSSIA declared Estonian leader Kaja Kallas and several other European officials as “wanted” on Tuesday over their alleged involvement in the destruction of Soviet-era war memorials.
The monuments, some of which commemorate the Red Army, had long been controversial in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and seen by many as symbols of their time under Soviet occupation.
The three Baltic states began removing and demolishing some of them in response to Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine in 2022, prompting outrage in Moscow.
Russia said it had added several people to its wanted list in response to the “destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers”.
“Crimes against the memory of the liberators of the world from Nazism and fascism must be punished. And this is just the beginning,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
The Kremlin said those declared wanted had taken “hostile actions against historical memory” and Russia.
“These are the people who are responsible for decisions that are actually an abuse of historical memory,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Among those added were Estonian state secretary Taimar Peterkop, as well as Karol Nawrocki, the head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance.
Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys, who was also added to the list, accused Russia of distorting facts.
“The regime is doing what it has always done: it is trying to stifle freedom… and to continue to create its own version that is at odds with facts or logic,” he told AFP.
