TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia's prime minister has been put on a wanted list in Russia because of her efforts to remove Soviet-era World War II monuments in the Baltic nation, officials said Tuesday as tensions between Russia and the West soar amid the war in Ukraine.
The name of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas appeared on the Russian Interior Ministry's list of people wanted on unspecified criminal charges. While independent Russian news outlet Mediazona first reported Tuesday that Kallas was on the list, it said she has been on it for a while. The list includes scores of officials and lawmakers from other Baltic nations.
Russian officials said that Kallas had been put on the list because of her efforts to remove World War II monuments.
Kallas dismissed it as Moscow's “familiar scare tactic.”
“Russia may believe that issuing a fictitious arrest warrant will silence Estonia,” she said. “I refuse to be silenced – I will continue to vocally support Ukraine and advocate for the strengthening of European defenses.”
Estonia and fellow NATO members Latvia and Lithuania have pulled down monuments that are widely seen as an unwanted legacy of the Soviet occupation of those countries.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, numerous monuments to Red Army soldiers also have been taken down in Poland and the Czech Republic, a belated purge of what many see as symbols of past oppression.
Moscow has denounced…
