A Soviet monument disappears from Riga. The Russians are protesting
The area around the monument is protected by police forces, pedestrians have been stopped on a nearby street. Earlier, the Latvian police had warned the residents of Riga to refrain from visiting Victory Park during the demolition works. There is also a ban on the use of drones in the area – reported tvnet.lv.
If third-country nationals, irrespective of their country of origin, commit illegal activities during the dismantling of the monument, they will be entered on the list of undesirable persons in Latvia and deported abroad, said the head of Latvian diplomacy Edgars Rinkevics on Monday evening.
The official name of the monument is the Monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army – the liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga at the hands of the German-fascist occupiers. The memorial was built in 1985 when Latvia was part of the USSR. The central part of the monument is an obelisk with a star, 79 m high.
Soviet and Nazi monuments must disappear. They gave a date
On August 11, the Latvian State Security Service (VDD) announced that there could be provocations inspired by the Kremlin during the removal of the monument. In the VDD assessment, these measures would be calculated, inter alia, to deepen divisions in Latvian society and weaken the level of trust in the state authorities.
On July 14, the Latvian government decided that 69 monuments and other objects commemorating the Soviet and Nazi regimes will be removed in the country. Monuments, signs of memory and other objects glorifying totalitarian systems are to be dismantled. This does not apply to places where there are burials.
The online newspaper “Neatkariga Rita Avize” noted that there are over 300 such places in the countrywhile a special commission recommended dismantling 69 of them. More than 20 objects have been removed before.
On Monday, seven people who opposed the decision to demolish the building were detained near the monument.