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Moscow condemns Estonia’s pro-Nazi sports quest Erna Raid

Erna Raid-2017 was held in Estonia on August 11-13 for the 18th time
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova  Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Russia strongly condemns Estonia’s pro-Nazi sports quest called Erna Raid-2017, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She said Erna Raid, held on August 11-13 in Estonia for the 18th time, was devoted to a group of Nazi saboteurs who operated in the Red Army’s rear in August 1941.

"The quest enjoys active support from Estonia’s Ministry of Defense. Propagandistically it is addressed to Estonian youth," Zakharova said. She described the quest as "an absolutely disgraceful campaign and an insult to the memory of numerous victims of Nazism."

Zakharova regretted that taking part in the event were members of the British contingent of NATO’s multi-national battalion in Estonia.

"A question readily offers itself: was British troops’ participation in the Erna Raid a coincidence or a logic extension of the recent publication on the alliance’s Twitter page of a video glorifying ‘forest brothers’, who had fought for Nazi Germany?" Zakharova said. "Russia most resolutely condemns such glorification of Nazism. We regret that NATO does not take the trouble of deriving lessons from the recent tragic past, but on the contrary encourages its Baltic vassals to indulge in such risky and by no means childish games."