Listen to the audio version of the article
Russian police have placed Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, his state secretary and Lithuania’s culture minister on the wanted list, according to the Russian Interior Ministry database. It is the first time that a prime minister has been placed on the Russian government’s wanted list.
The destruction of Soviet monuments
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov (video) declared that Kallas is wanted for “desecration of historical memory”. Russian state agency TASS said Baltic officials are accused of “destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers” of World War II erected in the post-war Baltic Republic when it was under USSR rule.
Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova (video) said: «This is just the beginning. Crimes against the memory of the world‘s liberators from Nazism and fascism must be prosecuted,” Zakharova said.
Kallas: «A sign that I’m doing the right thing»
Kaja Kallas replied that Moscow’s decision to put her on the wanted list is proof that it is “doing the right thing” and added that it will continue to ensure its “strong support for Ukraine” and fight to “strengthen the defense of ‘Europe”. Kallas, in a message on X, added that “Russia’s tools have not changed”, recalling that his mother and grandmother were deported to Siberia. “The Kremlin – writes the Estonian Prime Minister – now hopes that this decision will silence me and others, but this will not be the case.”
Baltic nations that were once part of the Soviet Union have announced plans to demolish Soviet-era monuments. In 2022, Kallas said Estonian authorities would dismantle 200 to 400 such monuments. In response, the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered a criminal investigation into the matter.