monument, with the stone structure reconstructed, at its new permanent location, June 2007 Christopher Walker and Robert Orttung allege that
Kremlin-controlled sectors of the
Russian media took advantage of anti-Estonian sentiment during Estonia's 2007 relocation of the
Bronze Soldier, a Soviet-era monument to Russia's victory over Germany in the
Second World War, originally called "Monument to the Liberators of
Tallinn". At various times following Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union, Russian national television has effectively shaped anti-Estonian sentiment with the state-controlled media redoubling their anti-Estonian campaign after specific events that displease Moscow. According to
Lilia Shevtsova, Senior Associate at the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program Chair of the
Carnegie Moscow Center, anti-Estonian sentiment was intentionally escalated by Kremlin in its "search for enemies", however she also notes that even Russian democrats took Estonia's removal of the statue immediately before
Victory Day to be an affront to the Russian national honour. The Russian government used its state controlled media to propagate anti-Estonian sentiment in order to encourage ethnic Russian outrage, leading to
coordinated waves of cyber attacks against Estonian internet infrastructure. The President of Estonia
Toomas Hendrik Ilves stated at the time: "We are witnesses to the information war against Estonia which already reminds of an ideological aggression". '' as part of its Estonian boycott campaign. The SS refers to the Nazi German
Schutzstaffel, commonly known as SS. An anti-Estonian
pejorative neologism,
eSStonia, appeared in the
Russian media, on
Runet, and at the street protests in the midst of the
Bronze Soldier controversy in 2007. The term, a
portmanteau of
Estonia and
SS, is intended to portray Estonia as a
neo-Nazi state. In April 2007, some participants protested outside the
Embassy of Estonia in Moscow, organized by the Russian youth organisation
Nashi, carrying signs stating "Wanted. The Ambassador of the Fascist State of eSStonia" (), referring to the then-
Ambassador of Estonia to Russia Marina Kaljurand. The use of
eSStonia in protests by Nashi and the Young Guard determined the head of the
Saint Petersburg youth branch of
Yabloko to file a complaint with
Yury Chaika, the
Prosecutor General of Russia, asking for an investigation into a possible breach of Article 282: Incitement of National, Racial, or Religious Enmity of the
Criminal Code of Russia. In November 2007,
Komsomolskaya Pravda, the biggest selling
daily newspaper in Russia, ran a campaign asking readers to boycott travel to Estonia, Estonian goods and services. The campaign run under the slogan "''I don't go to eSStonia''" ().
The Economist, in its editorial, called the term "a cheap jibe" by spelling the country's name
eSStonia,
President Ilves as
IlveSS and
Prime Minister Ansip as
AnSSip, while noting the coining of the term
Nashism to describe what they regard as the populist, pro-authoritarian and ultra-nationalist philosophy of Nashi, a pro-Kremlin youth movement, as an encouraging countermeasure. In 2007, as a response to the possibility of removal of World War II graves (in the context of the
Bronze Soldier controversy) Russian
State Duma issued a statement accusing "the Estonian government's intention to continue its course of representing Nazism in a heroic light and justifying its ideology". In Russia, the youth movement
Nashi has been noted for anti-Estonian sentiments among its members, often
framed as "anti-fascism activities". ==See also==