TALLINN. May 4 (Interfax) - The Estonian Police and Border Guard Board has permitted the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (EOC-MP) to conduct a religious service at a military cemetery on May 9, but only inside closed premises.
"A service conducted in the open air could lead to a situation that would require the intervention of the security agencies. This may hinder the service itself, so we are asking for the service not to be conducted outside the chapel, because the grounds of the cemetery are a public place where public gatherings are banned," Ida-Harju police chief Roger Kumm told the Postimees newspaper on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the police decided to ban public gatherings using Soviet and Russian symbols in the Harju, Laane-Virum and Ida-Viru counties, which have large Russian-speaking populations, between May 5 and 9.
The ban led the EOC-MP to ask for permission to conduct a service inside the chapel, as it had in previous years.
Each year on Victory Day, the Tallinn military cemetery draws thousands of the country's residents and visitors, Russian diplomats, veterans, and public figures, who lay wreaths and flowers at the monument to the Soldier Liberator over Nazi Germany.