The removal of the graves of Soviet soldiers and the Bronze Soldier monument from central Tallinn provoked mass protests in the capital and some other cities in the Baltic country in late April 2007, when over 1,000 people were arrested, dozens injured and a Russian national killed.
Estonian prosecutors said Dmitry Linter, Maxim Reva and Dmitry Klensky, aided by Mark Siryk, a member of Russia's Kremlin-backed youth group Nashi, organized riots that led to looting, arson and clashes with police. If found guilty, the defendants could face up to five years in prison.
The ethnic Russian activists set up a group last spring called Night Watch, whose members guarded the monument commemorating those who died fighting the Nazis in 1944, in an attempt to prevent its removal.
Reva and Linter spent over six months in jail and were released on November 16 pending trial after their lawyers argued that, as holders of passports that give them permission to reside in Estonia but no citizenship, they would be unable to flee the country.
The move by Estonia aggravated relations with Russia, which has long criticized Tallinn's discriminatory policies toward Russian speakers and leniency toward Estonian Waffen-SS veterans. Rallies were also held in Moscow, where Nashi activists picketed the Estonian Embassy, leading to its brief closure and diplomatic protests.
During the dispute, key Estonian government and banking websites were forced to shut down following a wave of hacker attacks that Tallinn said were perpetrated by Russians working on the Kremlin's orders.
The Estonian government considers the Soviet era a period of illegal occupation.
The remains of some of 11 Red Army soldiers buried under the Bronze Soldier have since been reburied at their home towns at their relatives' requests.
