MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Moscow will not allow to put the investigation into the murder of Russian citizen Dmitry Ganin who died while protecting the Monument to the Liberator Soldier in Tallinn in 2007 into cold storage, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
"We have to state with regret that, despite our constant demarches and repeated assurances from the Estonian side about its readiness to bring the investigation to its logical conclusion, it actually remains stalled," she said.
Zakharova noted that the recent reply from the Estonian Foreign Ministry to requests for legal assistance from the Russian Investigative Committee and a diplomatic note from the Russian Embassy in Tallinn had no real answer. "The impression is that the Estonian law enforcement authorities deliberately seek to close the case because of remoteness of events," Zakharova said.
"In view of this, we state that Russia will not allow to put the investigation of its citizen’s murder into cold storage," she emphasized. "We will make vigorous efforts to make sure that the Estonian authorities bring the Ganin case to an end, identify and punish the perpetrators of this crime."
Work to dismantle the Monument to the Liberator Soldier in central Tallinn began overnight to April 27, 2007. The monument was protected by both residents of Estonia and Russians who came to the city. Local police used force to disperse the protesters, riots broke out during which Dmitry Ganin was killed. However, those responsible for his death have not been brought to account to date.
In early September 2015, Russian investigative bodies initiated criminal proceedings over Ganin’s death under Part 2 Article 105 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Murder).