The Bronze Soldier, a statue commemorating Soviet soldiers killed during World War II, rises at its new location, the Defense Forces Cemetery in Tallinn, Estonia. The statue was installed Monday, three days after its removal from a downtown square in Estonia's capital provoked riots by ethnic Russians. The sign reads in Estonian and Russian: To

Tallinn, Estonia ? A statue of a Red Army Soldier at the heart of deadly riots in Estonia was re-erected Monday at a military cemetery in the capital, overlooking dozens of Russian war graves.

The cemetery will also be the new resting place of Red Army soldiers being exhumed from a downtown memorial. Archeologists excavating the grave said they had found nine coffins by Monday, but had not yet opened them.

The Bronze Soldier’s removal from the downtown memorial last week provoked sharp criticism from Moscow and rioting in Estonia – the worst since the Baltic country quit the Soviet Union in 1991. One man was stabbed to death, more than 150 people were hurt and 1,100 were detained.

Ethnic Russians consider the exhumations and the statue’s removal an insult to the Soviet Army, which pushed the Nazis from Estonia in 1944. Some ethnic Estonians, however, see the monument as a bitter reminder of Soviet occupation.

The dispute has further strained tense relations between Russia and Estonia and underscored long-standing complaints about the treatment of ethnic Russian minorities in ex-Soviet Baltic states. A group of visiting Russian lawmakers called on the Estonian government to resign.

While Russian speakers in Baltic countries enjoyed advantages under Soviet rule, many now struggle to get education, deal with government offices and get jobs amid a resurgence in native languages and inroads by English.

Estonian authorities said they were increasingly uneasy about pro-Russian protests at its embassies in Moscow and Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

Protesters have all but blockaded the embassy in Moscow, erecting tents on an adjacent sidewalk, holding candle vigils, plastering cars with anti-Estonian stickers and passing out “Wanted” posters with pictures of the Estonian ambassador.

Estonia’s government had said the memorial’s location near a busy intersection was not a proper place for a war grave. Ethnic Russians said the real reason was to pander to Estonian nationalists who wanted the monument removed.

The moving of the memorial drew criticism from others. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center called it an insult to the victims of the Nazis.

While recognizing the crimes committed under Soviet rule, “it must never be forgotten that it was the Red Army which effectively stopped the mass murder conducted by the Nazis and their local collaborators on Estonian soil,” said Efraim Zuroff, the center’s chief Nazi hunter.

The Tallinn cemetery where the Bronze Soldier now stands is about two miles from the city center.

Established in 1887, it holds mostly Russian and Estonian soldiers killed during the wars of the 20th century. It also contains graves of Germans soldiers who died in World War I and 112 British sailors killed during Estonia’s war of independence in 1918-1920.

A headstone in front of the 6 1/2-foot statue reads, “To the unknown soldier,” in Estonian and Russian.