Estonians exhume remains from Red Army memorial

TALLINN, ESTONIA —  Estonian officials exhumed remains believed to be those of Soviet soldiers from a Red Army memorial in the heart of the capital Saturday, pushing ahead with an operation that sparked widespread rioting by ethnic Russians.

The streets were largely quiet after two nights of unrest, but tensions were still high among the country’s majority ethnic Estonians and minority Russians. Local media reported that the graves of several famous Estonians had been desecrated, as well as some belonging to Soviet soldiers and the Nazi troops they fought during World War II.

Protesters gathered Saturday night in the largely ethnic Russian towns of Johvi and Narva, near the Russian border, leading to dozens of arrests. Over the previous two nights, violence resulted in the death of a Russian citizen, more than 100 injuries and about 840 arrests.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov said the decision to remove the graves and statue known as the Bronze Soldier was “absolutely repulsive.”

The Estonian Defense Ministry said it would move the statue to a military cemetery about two miles away and rebury the remains there.