Toomas Hendrik Ilves proposed that the parliament revise the law in compliance with the Constitution.
The controversial bill, which Estonian lawmakers passed last Thursday, stemmed from a dispute over a Monument to a Soviet Liberator, or the "Bronze Soldier," in central Tallinn, which many Estonians want removed.
The president said that the bill, by obliging the government to demolish the monument within 30 days of the law's entry into force, violated the principle of the division of power.
Estonia, along with neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, was taken over by the Soviet Union in 1940, and the Soviets regained control of the three Baltic nations from Nazi Germany in 1944.
While Russia maintains that the Red Army came to the Baltics to liberate it from Nazi invaders, many local residents see the advent of Soviet soldiers as an act of aggression.
The law's approval met with sharp criticism from Russia's Foreign Minister.
"I consider the passage of this bill in its third [and final] reading, despite protests from many countries, to be a blunder and a disgraceful act, one that is unacceptable in today's Europe and that contradicts European values and the principles of organizations to which Estonia belongs," Sergei Lavrov said last Thursday, adding that he was referring primarily to the European Union, which the Baltic nation joined in May 2004.
The bill on the demolition of monuments is a follow-up to a law the president signed in January permitting the reburial of the remains of Soviet soldiers who died in Estonia fighting the Nazis.
The law permits the relocation of graves from grounds deemed unsuitable, and thereby legalizes the removal of the "Bronze Soldier," underneath which the bodies of several Soviet soldiers lie.
The monument is planned for removal following parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 4, but before lawmakers form a new government.
The six-foot high "Bronze Soldier," erected in 1947, and other Soviet-era memorials have in recent years become rallying points for ethnic Russians living in Estonia, and clashes in front of the "Bronze Soldier" between Estonian nationalists and Russians induced the Estonian authorities to press for monuments "dividing society" to be removed.
Along with the law on memorials, Estonia's parliament also passed amendments to a bill on public holidays, establishing September 22 as Resistance Remembrance Day to commemorate Estonians who fought in Nazi units against the Soviet "invasion."
Russia has repeatedly drawn the European Union's attention to attempts by Estonia, which declared its independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, to glorify Nazi Germany, including with parades by former Nazi SS fighters.
Moscow has also harshly criticized Estonia's discriminatory policies with respect to ethnic Russians who moved to the republic following its annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940, and their descendents.
Many members of Estonia's Russian community are denied citizenship and employment rights, and cannot receive an education in their native language.
