Recent Official Russian Accusations of Glorifying Nazism
See also: Erna long-range recce group#Soviet historiographySince the competition's initiation, sectors of the Russian media claimed the competition's namesake was an attempt to glorify collaboration with the Nazi Germany. In 2007, high-ranking government officials sharply criticized the competition, generally calling it "glamorization of Nazism" and expressing outrage over NATO members participating in the competition. Estonian officials attribute this recent development to the ongoing campaign for Russian presidential election, 2008. Russian officials claim that commemoration of the Erna group today is part of alleged efforts by the Estonian authorities to glorify Nazi past (other parts of it being relocation of a memorial to Red Army invaders and an official greeting from the Minister of Defence to veterans of a unit of Estonians conscripted to a division organized within the Waffen SS to defend Estonia).
Analyst of the US based think tank Jamestown Foundation believes this view follows Soviet and post-Soviet Russia's official logic on two counts: first, that resistance to the Red Army was inherently illegitimate and conflatable with "fascism" in an occupied country or one targeted for occupation; second, that Estonia should be criticized for remembering an act of national resistance and its casualties.
Estonia's Minister of Defence, Jaak Aaviksoo called the accusations "regrettable" and recalled that the Erna group saved the lives of many civilians from the vengeful Soviet paramilitary units, and specifically pointed out cases of burning farmers alive along with their farms in Kautla.
Read more about this topic: Erna Raid
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