TALLINN, Estonia — Estonian officials exhumed remains believed to be those of Soviet soldiers from a Red Army memorial in the heart of the capital Saturday, pushing ahead with an operation that sparked widespread rioting by infuriated ethnic Russians.

The streets were largely quiet after two nights of unrest but tensions were still high among the country's majority Estonians and minority Russians. Local media reported that several graves of famous Estonians had been desecrated, as well as some belonging to Soviet soldiers and the Nazi troops they fought during World War II.

Protesters gathered Saturday night in the largely ethnic Russian towns of Johvi and Narva, near the Russian border, leading to dozens of arrests. But there was nothing like the violence that resulted in the death of a Russian citizen, over 100 injuries, including two dozen policemen, and more than 840 arrests over the previous two nights.

The government placed a nationwide ban on the sale of alcohol after 6 p.m. and sent hundreds of thousands of cell phone text messages asking people to stay home.

The rioting in the capital and largely ethnic Russian towns was the worst seen since the Baltic state won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and raised concern throughout the European Union, which Estonia joined in 2004.

"I'm sure that the hooligans' attacks on everything we hold dear — our children's' safety, our memories, our homeland — will only further unite us," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in a televised address to the nation.

He expressed regret and sympathy for those who suffered as a result of the riots, adding that the government would provide compensation for damages.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed the "most serious concern" about the "crisis situation" to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the European Union, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week described the decision to remove the graves and statue known as the Bronze Soldier as, "absolutely repulsive."

Some 50,000 Soviet soldiers were killed by Nazi troops on Estonian territory. Estonia's Russians — less than one-third of the country's 1.3 million population — regarded the monument as a shrine to the war effort, but ethnic Estonians consider it a painful reminder of hardships during the half-century of Soviet rule that followed World War II.

For 15 years Estonians tolerated the statue's presence in a prominent Tallinn square. Then in May many Russians were seen waving the Soviet flag while celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The incident triggered a major debate about the fate of the Bronze Soldier in the run-up to Estonia's parliamentary elections — which took place in March — and even led to a draft bill banning Soviet symbols.

About 15 people are buried at the small park adjacent to where the Bronze Soldier monument stood. The exact number of bodies and their identity is not known.

Lutheran and Russian Orthodox ceremonies were conducted before the excavations started. The site was covered by a white tent and surrounded by police officers, who kept the press and public far from the area.

The Defense Ministry said it aimed to complete the excavation work "as quickly as possible" but did not give a timeline.

The statue, of a Red Army soldier with his rifle slung over his back, was being held at an undisclosed location, said Andreas Kaju, a Defense Ministry adviser.

The Estonian Defense Ministry said it would rebury the remains in a military cemetery about two miles from the present location. The Bronze Soldier statue will also be moved to the cemetery, where Russians will be able to visit.

In Moscow, various activist and pro-Kremlin youth groups protested in front of the Estonian Embassy, some wearing World War II military uniforms. Protesters threw tomatoes at the embassy and insulted the Estonian ambassador, news reports said.

Estonian embassy officials suspended operations at the Moscow consulate, saying "an adequate level of security for the embassy was not being guaranteed," according to Russian news agencies.

Several Russian grocery retailers have announced they would stop selling Estonian goods in protest.

The Russian foreign ministry demanded that Estonian authorities conduct a full probe into the death of the young man, identified so far only by his first name, Dmitri. He was stabbed to death on a central Tallinn street during the clashes, apparently by another rioter.