TALLINN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian ambassador to Estonia Nikolai Uspensky on Wednesday laid flowers at a disputed Soviet-era statute for ceremony of the end of the Second World War.

    "May 9 is our celebration, it's a holiday celebrated in Russia,and I myself feel huge satisfaction that our holiday, May 9, is remembered in Estonia," Uspensky said after a solemn remembrance before the Bronze Soldier statute.

    The relocation of the statute from downtown Tallinn to a military cemetery in southern part of the capital triggered violent protests from ethnic Russians in the Baltic country nearly two weeks ago, which left one person killed and 153 people injured.

    Protesters denounced the government's relocation decision as an insult to war heroes, but some Estonians viewed the statute as a symbol of Soviet repression.

    Uspensky refused to attend Tuesday's events organized by the Estonian government, including wreath-laying before the Bronze Soldier, when the relations between Russia and Estonia soured due to the removal of the statute.

    A spokesman from the Russian embassy in Estonia said on Monday that they had a program of its own for May 9 every year and the program would be observed this year too.

    Estonia usually remembered the end of the Second World War on May 8, and Russia on May 9.

    In a short statement, Uspensky said the two countries' relationship is going through "stormy times," while reiterating Moscow's objections to the relocation of both the statute and a nearby war grave containing 12 Red Army soldiers of the former Soviet Union.

    "If we are to speak bluntly they (Estonia) have desecrated the graves," Uspensky said, "of course we look upon this negatively, and it creates the lowest of feelings."