ESTONIA/LATVIA:The European Union is failing to tackle dangerous "neo-Nazi tendencies" in its Baltic states, the head of the European Jewish Congress claimed yesterday.
Moshe Kantor, a Russian businessman, accused Estonia and Latvia of playing down the Soviet army's role in freeing eastern Europe from the Nazis and said that to do so was tantamount to denying the Holocaust. He called on the Council of Europe to act.
"The European Union does not give proper attention to what is going on in Latvia and Estonia because of some opportunistic, political reasons," Mr Kantor said, echoing criticism of the Baltic states by Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
The criticism, rejected by Latvia and Estonia, has rekindled recriminations between Russia and its former satellites.
Accusations of promoting Nazism are levelled against Estonia and Latvia by Russia because the Germans formed SS divisions from the two nations. A parade of SS veterans in Latvia last March infuriated Russians.
The Baltics see these men as fighting for independence from the Soviet Union, which annexed the states in 1940, reoccupied them after driving out the Nazis and then ruled them until the fall of communism. Some Balts also fought for the Red Army.
Estonia caused an outcry in Russia last March by moving a monument to Red Army soldiers away from the centre of the capital, Tallinn.