The ministry said 9,950 Russians submitted applications to Estonian embassies in December 2007, against 16,549 Russian nationals in December 2006.
On December 21, Estonia joined the Schengen agreement along with another eight countries to allow border-free internal travel, which ministry officials said could lessen the number of Russian visitors.
However, local sociologists and opposition activists said the decrease was caused by Russia's indignation at the ex-Soviet Baltic state's decision to relocate a WWII monument in the capital, Tallinn.
The move provoked mass protests in Tallinn and across the country, which left over 160 people injured. A Russian national, Dmitry Ganin, 20, was stabbed to death. Around 1,200 people were detained in late April.
In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Mikhail Kamynin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, called ineffective Estonia's eight-month-long investigation of Ganin's murder and expressed hope that those guilty of the crime would be punished this year.
"Unfortunately, I have to state that Estonian police have not so far taken effective measures to conduct an objective investigation into the murder of a Russian citizen in Estonia," Kamynin said.
