ACCUSED GANGSTERS ADMIT TO FANNING ETHNIC TENSION IN ESTONIA.

Two Russian residents of Estonia, members of an organized crime group, have pleaded guilty to charges of inciting ethnic and political hostility as well as violence. The two, on trial with the group’s "godfather" for racketeering, are also accused of having written and distributed on the gang’s orders inflammatory leaflets in the Russian-inhabited towns Narva and Sillamae last year. Written in poor Estonian and signed by a nonexistent "Estonian Legion," the leaflets called for violence against Russians and Jews. (BNS, January 6) Russian nationalist circles subsequently cited the leaflets as alleged evidence of Estonian oppression of "Russian-speakers."

Gazprom