IDIOTIC NASH!

The Baltic Times (Latvia)
Editorial
January 16, 2008


The much-anticipated trial against four alleged
organizers of the Tallinn riots began this week
amid a tranquil atmosphere at home and the
requisite show of propaganda on the part of
Russia. The four men are accused of fomenting the
rioting that rocked the Estonia’s capital last
April, leaving one dead, over a hundred injured
and property damage estimated at several million euros.
The defendants have denied their guilt, and even
made counterclaims against the Estonian state,
alleging police abuse and constitutional
violations such as denying the right to legal
counsel. Regardless, prosecutors are confident
that they have compiled a strong case against the
four ¬ all ethnic Russians ¬ who face up to five years in prison.

Put mildly, it would appear that the goose has
been cooked for the four defendants. Some of
them, if not all, were followed by security
police for months before the rioting took place.
Their phones were also tapped. Indeed, it is the
latter that will likely serve as the prosecutors’
smoking gun. One can easily imagine that any of
the four, in the heat of the moment on April 26 -
27, began phoning contacts and “rallying the
troops.” The language used was, in all
likelihood, very harsh (and could eventually
become a fine primer to the rich obscenities in
the Russian language). The four defendants are
all members of Night Watch, an informal club
established to protect the Bronze Soldier statue,
and all four had staked their personal
reputations on shielding the Soviet memorial from
Estonian authorities. Who knows? Perhaps at one
point, seeing they were losing the battle, they
began to make desperate calls for a violent upheaval.

The court case will also be interesting in that
it could shed light on Russia’s role in the
mayhem. Moscow has denied any role in the riots,
and the subsequent cyber-attacks as well, but
few, if any, outside Russia believe this. The
Russian ambassador to Estonia, we know for a
fact, regularly met with Dmitry Linter, one of
the four accused. He does not deny that they
spoke about the monument, though he says it was
simply “an exchange of opinions and experience.”
Secondly, the world witnessed how the pro-Kremlin
youth organization, Nashi, barricaded the
Estonian Embassy in Moscow and tried to barge
into a press conference by the Estonian
ambassador. Using the rule of thumb in Putin’s
Russia ¬ if it’s Nashi, then it’s on the
Kremlin’s orders ¬ then one can anticipate that
the trial in Tallinn will bring some
incriminating revelations against the eastern neighbor.

But there is a pleasing footnote to the latter
ordeal. Nashi activists have in recent days
discovered that their road to Europe has been
blocked. Due to their aggressive behavior against
Estonia, the Baltic state has declared them
personae non grata for travel to the European
Union. Membership in the Schengen zone affords
Estonia that right. Now the poor activists ¬ who
aren’t really activists but protesters-for-hire ¬
are moaning that they can’t get to Helsinki or
Madrid because they’ve been blacklisted. For us,
this has provided a wonderful sense of
schadenfreude. Perhaps now these semi-literate
shock troops will learn how to behave themselves
...though we’re not holding our breath.
Looking for last minute shopping deals?