The riots were touched off Thursday 26th May, 2007 by the start of what was to be exploratory excavation work at the site of the controversial Bronze Soldier monument in central Tallinn. There several hundred youth had gathered to protest the planned move of the Red Army memorial, and became violent after being pushed to side streets by police.

The Bronze Soldier monument, erected in 1947 as a memorial to Soviet soldiers, has been a source of controversy since the collapse of the USSR. Local veterans groups and many Russian-speakers view the monument as a tribute to those who liberated Europe from fascism, while Estonians find it a highly offensive symbol of their nation’s 50 year occupation by the Soviet Union.

The plan to relocate the statue has caused anger in Moscow, which says the Estonians are glorifying fascism by insisting on moving it.

The Estonian Government voted last year to move the monument to a less prominent location after scuffles broke out at the memorial between pro-Russian supporters and ethnic Estonians.

Estonia and its Baltic neighbours were annexed by the Soviet Union at the close of World War II and only regained independence in 1991.