The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), urged Russia on Wednesday to end a blockade of Estonia's embassy in Moscow.

"We share the concerns about the increasing violence around the Estonian embassy in Moscow," said EC external relations spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann.

Hohmann said the EC wanted to send an EU delegation to raise the issue with the Russian authorities, calling on Russia to respect its international obligations on embassies and their staff.

The spokeswoman said the EC had launched a "troika demarche" to send EU ambassadors to raise those concerns out of "solidarity with Estonia."

"We have already requested for the appointment," she added.

It was reported that Estonia closed its consulate within the embassy compound on Wednesday after pro-Kremlin youth activists blocked diplomats and scuffled with the ambassador's bodyguards in protest at the relocation of a Soviet war memorial in the Baltic state's capital Tallinn.

Tallinn has called for help from the European Union and claims that the Russian authorities are fomenting unrest in the former Soviet republic.

"We hope that the whole issue behind this will be solved between the Russian government and the Estonian government through dialogue and negotiation," the spokeswoman said.

Source: Xinhua