Attack on the Estonian Ministry of Defense

On August 11, 2011, at about 3:00 p.m. local time, Drambyan entered the building of the Estonian Ministry of Defense in the center of Tallinn, he carried a pistol with a hundred rounds and a bag with ten to fifteen explosive devices. He opened fire in the lobby and fired smoke bombs, but he was unable to get through the security gate and enter the building. At that time, the building was guarded by representatives of the Estonian Defense Union ^[7] . He temporarily took two people hostage ^[8] , including one guard ^[9] . In a joint operation conducted by Estonian police and security police, police stormed the building and killed Drambyan in a shootout ^[10] .

At that moment, Minister of Defense Mart Laar was not in the building ^[11] .

Reactions

• Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip believes that Drambyan may have been inspired by the 2011 attacks in Norway ^[12] .
• Dmitry Klenski, a Russian and Estonian politician, believes that Drambyan committed his crime on the basis of personal problems, and not political motives ^[13] .
• Sergey Jurgens, leader of the United Left Party, accuses Defense Minister Mart Laar of groundlessly linking Karen’s actions with the United Left Party.
• Mart Laar , Estonian Minister of Defense, said that Estonia would investigate whether a terrorist’s act is a “powerful propaganda attack against Estonia” from Russia ^[14] .

Drambyan was born in Yerevan , graduated from Kaliningrad State University in 1992, lawyer. In 1993 received Estonian citizenship.

Drambyan ran a law firm in Maardu .

Drambyan was divorced and had two daughters ^[15] . In 2011, he was faced with financial difficulties, and his apartment in Maardu was sold by court order ^[16] .

Drambyan was a member of the United Left Party of Estonia , the successor to the Estonian Communist Party ^[17] , which sought to represent the Russian minority in Estonia ^[18] . In the 2007 Parliamentary election, he was a candidate from the Constitutional Party ^[19] . According to the Estonian Security Police, the constitutional party was a puppet, supported from Russia, created with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service ^[20] .

In the 2009 municipal elections, after the merger of the Constitutional Party with the Estonian Left Party , he was a candidate from the newly formed Estonian United Left Party, but was not elected ^[21] . He was known as the fierce ally of Mayor Maardu Georgy Bystrov ^{[22] [23]} .

During a campaign in the 2009 EU Parliamentary Elections , Drambyan published a manifesto denouncing Estonia as a morally bankrupt neo-fascist country, claiming that the Estonian government chose a civil war in its relations with the Russian minority, and accounted for its slave mentality in the face of discrimination ^{[24] [25] [26] [27] [28]} .