Estonia reburies Soviet soldiers

The removal of the Soviet monument in April led to violent clashes

Estonia has reburied the remains of eight Red Army soldiers in a military ceremony in the capital, Tallinn.

Russian diplomats shunned the ceremony, despite an official invitation from the Estonian government.

The exhumation of the remains in April and the removal of a Soviet war memorial led to two nights of clashes between ethnic Russians and police.

It also caused a rift in ties between the two countries and led protesters to blockade of Estonia's Moscow embassy.

The memorial has also been re-located to the military cemetery, outside the city centre.

Russia's embassy said it would attend a separate ceremony at the cemetery after the official re-burial was over.

At the time of the row, Moscow described the removal of the statue as a "blasphemous" insult to those who died fighting Nazism.

For many Estonians the Soviet war memorial is a painful symbol of decades of communist rule from Moscow.