"We received a total of 73 signatures for our draft statement, and these 73 MPs represent all Riigikogu parliamentary groups," Mihkelson, one of the initiators of the statement, told ERR. "I am glad that a strong consensus in the Riigikogu has gotten behind this statement."

Asked whether any Russian-speaking MPs from the Center Party parliamentary group were among the signatories, Mihkelson responded that he didn't know of any. "But what I consider more important than that is that all parliamentary groups are represented among the initiators," he added.

The Center Party group was the only parliamentary group not to support the initiation of the statement. Center MP and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Enn Eesmaa, however, has told ERR that he intends to support the passing of the statement.

Mihkelson said that he wants to organize discussions of the draft statement in an expanded format, which would also include representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research as well as the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory. He believed this could take place on February 11, with the statement put to a vote in the plenary on February 19 or 20.

The goal of the statement is to oppose Russia's attempts to employ a Stalinist historical narrative in order to justify its own aggressive foreign policy. The statement also stresses the need to include in school curriculums the crimes of totalitarian regimes and topics related to threats to democracy as well as to support projects preserving the memory of victims of such regimes.

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