Estonia: Russian Media Gets It Wrong. On Purpose.
Yesterday, Justin wondered who would successfully put a spin on the recent events in Tallinn.
Well, the Russian propaganda machine didn’t disappoint us.
Reuters reported:
TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia on Saturday stepped up preparations to exhume the remains of Red Army soldiers at a memorial site after removing a World War Two monument, sparking two days of riots in which one man died.
As calm returned to the capital after violence which shocked the small Baltic state, Russia expressed anger over Estonia’s actions and accused Tallinn police of using excessive force and causing the death of the man, a Russian citizen.
This refers to a note coming from the beehive, or the ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation.
It has just become known that a citizen of the Russian Federation, permanently resident in Estonia, died as a result of the clashes when the Estonian authorities attempted to disperse the demonstrations taking place in Tallinn on the night of April 26-27 in defense of the Monument to the Liberator Soldier.
The death of a Russian citizen spawned into the top story on Russian TV. Understandably so. It mobilizes. It angers. It creates an impression that the in-fighting is ethnically-based.
It is also far from the truth.
The victim was a 19-year-old Russian citizen named Dmitry, who had permanent residency in Tallinn. He died of a knife injury sustained in a fight with someone named Oleg. The police broke up the fighting and both participants were taken to a local hospital where they were treated. The doctors did their best, but were unable to save Dmitry’s life.
One could give Russian media a benefit of the doubt. They didn’t know this. But according to some blogs from Estonia, the news was announced at 7 a.m. Friday at a press conference of the country’s internal affairs minister Juri Pihla.
The Kremlin knows what it’s doing.
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