Under the proposal, Tallinn City Government would be given the task of mapping out the monuments' locations in cooperation with the National Heritage Board of Estonia and the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.

For (Soviet) burial sites, the city government would need to find a similar solution in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and the War Graves Commission.

According to the draft, the process of cataloguing the monuments' locations should be completed by August 20 this year.

"In view of the activities of the Russian authorities and the influencing activities they finance, it is necessary to find a suitable place for these icons of the occupation, both in Tallinn and all over Estonia. Preferably in a museum, so that the evil is accompanied by an overview of what these busts and plaques actually mean, historically, to the people of Estonia and the free world," said Kristen Michal, chair of the Reform Party group in the council.

According to Marek Reinaas, chair of the Eesti 200 group, the occupation symbols should have been removed from the capital after the restoration of Estonian independence. "Against the backdrop of war crimes being committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, it is high time to finally resolve the issue of the Soviet monuments."

Tallinn City Council's legal affairs committee discussed a draft bill to remove the Soviet monuments on Monday, but it was voted down by the committee's center-right members.

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