ALTHOUGH never quite easy, Russia’s relations with the Baltic republic of Estonia have taken a nosedive. The latest crisis was sparked by the decision of the former Soviet republic to move a bronze statue of a Red Army soldier away from the centre of the capital.

Moscow accused Tallinn of desecrating the memory of the millions of Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

As the Estonian government began to exhume the remains of Soviet soldiers underneath the monument in order to rebury them in a military cemetery, native Russian-speakers erupted in violent protests. At least one person was killed and over 150 were injured over three nights of rioting and vandalism.

The tensions, in reality, are rooted deeper in history. Part of the Russian empire, Estonia proclaimed independence in 1918, which Moscow formally recognised two years later. After the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1940, Soviet troops absorbed Estonia into the union. Over the decades, as hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Russia and other Soviet republics arrived in the republic, ethnic Estonians grew increasingly anxious about their national identity. By the time Estonia regained independence in 1991, almost a third of its population consisted of Russian-speakers. The majority of them did not gain Estonian citizenship automatically.

Most ethnic Estonians view the Soviet army as the principal instrument of Moscow’s 50-year occupation and are understandably eager to erase symbols of that era. For most native Russian-speakers, who include ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians, such assertions of national identity are emblematic of their disenfranchisement.

Admittedly, Russia’s political calendar has played a part in the escalation of the latest tensions. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for December, while presidential polls are less than a year away. As politicians seek to strengthen their nationalist credentials, the cause of Russian minorities in former Soviet republics has always proved expedient. Yet Moscow recognises its limits. Estonia is a member of the European Union, Russia’s most important trade partner, where concern is already intensifying over such issues as the erosion of political and civil liberties and the politicisation of energy exports under the Putin administration.

As Russia counts the long-term cost of allowing the crisis to escalate, Estonia, too, confronts the perils of leaving a sizeable section of its population so alienated.

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