State Duma Speaker: Deportation of Russian veterans does nothing to credit Estonia

The decision to deport a group of Russian veterans does nothing to credit Estonia, State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov told journalists on Tuesday.

"The fact that they are being lodged in Russia is a lame excuse for deportation," he said. "It is just another of Estonia's hostile acts against Russia." The incident "aggravates the situation and does nothing to credit Estonia," said the speaker of the parliament's lower house.

He reminded the assembly that discrimination against Russians residing in Estonia and Latvia was one of the subjects discussed at the Interparliamentary Conference on All-European Cooperation, which opened in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

"We shall get to the root of this issue, and we shall raise it not only bilaterally but also in European parliamentary structures," promised Seleznyov.