[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 72 (Thursday, May 3, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H4466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ESTONIA STATUE CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOTTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to defend the sovereignty and 
national dignity of our friend and ally, Estonia; condemn Russia's 
unwarranted intrusions against these free people; and affirm our 
commitment to America and Estonia's common cause of human freedom.
  After a long, illegal and unjust Soviet occupation, Estonia now 
rightly and proudly stands by our side in the ranks of free nations. 
Nobly and selflessly, Estonia is steadfast in its defense of 
civilization from our barbaric enemies, and has championed the cause of 
human freedom throughout our world. Disturbingly, last week, this free 
people's very national sovereignty was threatened.
  In what should come as no surprise to Americans, whose own founding 
generation gained their independence from an imperial power, Estonia 
relocated an aging statue of a Soviet-era soldier from a central 
location in Tallinn to the city's Garrison Cemetery. Obstinately 
refusing to recognize Estonia's patent right to do so, or the obvious 
irony in the statue's new location, Russia used this routine act of 
municipal administration by the City of Tallinn to engage in a 
coordinated attempt to interfere in Estonia's internal affairs.
  Using state-controlled TV broadcasts into Estonia, the former Soviet 
Union used its state-controlled television broadcasts to spew 
propaganda into Estonia. This provocative Russian propaganda falsely 
claimed Estonia's relocation of the insulting Soviet statue constituted 
an international crisis. Russia did so to agitate and, thereby, incite 
the vandalism and violence which occurred in Tallinn from April 26 
through 29.
  Prior to these outbreaks of violence, Russian embassy officials were 
observed meeting with the organizers of radical pro-Russia fringe 
groups; and, while Russian-speaking mobs roamed Tallinn's streets, 
Estonia's government Web servers came under cyber attack, the cause of 
which was later traced to IP addresses located in Moscow and owned by 
the Russian presidential administration.
  So, too, there is a new report Russia has conveniently discovered a 
need to repair its rail links entering Estonia and, as a result, is 
suspending oil shipments to Estonia.
  Further, Russia continues to flout the Vienna Convention by allowing 
Russian nationalist extremists to surround and vandalize Estonia's 
embassy in Moscow.
  Mr. Speaker, when one weighs this inexcusable incident along with 
Russia's recent refusal to adhere to the Conventional Forces in Europe 
treaty, its recent arrest of Russian democracy advocates and its 
refusal to honor past agreements to withdraw its military forces from 
countries such as Moldova, one is compelled to question a former KGB 
lieutenant colonel's commitment to democracy; and whether the red bear 
is awakening from its hibernation to once again feast upon the free 
peoples of Eastern Europe and the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join in a righteous defense of 
Estonia's sovereignty; a condemnation of Russia's belligerent 
intrusions into this democratic nation's internal affairs; and affirm, 
in the tradition of American Presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald 
Reagan, we will stand united against tyranny with our Estonian brothers 
and sisters as one free people.

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