«Monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army — the liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from Nazi invaders» . Archive photoMINSK, May 13.The decision of the Riga authorities to demolish the monument to the Liberators of Riga is an insult to all the peoples of the former USSR, Oleg Gaidukevich, a Belarusian deputy, deputy head of the commission on international affairs of the lower house of the parliament of Belarus, told RIA Novosti. The Riga City Council held an extraordinary meeting on Friday, at which the majority voted for the demolition of the monument. Prior to this, the Latvian Parliament adopted a law to suspend the operation of a clause of the intergovernmental agreement with Russia on the protection of monuments to Soviet soldiers in the country, which will allow the dismantling of the monument to the Liberators of Riga. >The secretary of the HRC called the demolition of the monument to the liberators of Riga barbarism. «This is simply disrespect, an insult to all the peoples of the USSR. An insult to the memory of both the Latvians themselves and the Europeans who died in the fight against fascism,» the deputy said. Gaidukevich said that he would not be mistaken if he said, that all of Belarus is outraged by the decision of the Riga City Council to demolish the monument. According to him, this «hurts not only in Russia, it also hurts in Belarus, probably in all countries of the post-Soviet space.» «We have a great memory of the war (about the Great Patriotic War — ed.). Thousands of people came out in Belarus to celebrate May 9 this year. We look at it with pain. It hurts in Latvia too. I have many friends there, they are outraged «, — continued the deputy. «The Belarusian parliament is outraged, and we will definitely adopt the appropriate resolutions — I speak on behalf of the commission on international affairs, which will prepare these documents. We will not be silent,» Gaidukevich said. According to him, protest actions may also follow near European embassies in Belarus, in particular, near the building of the diplomatic mission of Latvia. «I'm not as a politician, but as a person whose grandfather went through the war, liberated Europe — our (the peoples of the USSR — ed.) grandfathers and great-grandfathers died for Riga — I can say that this is the rehabilitation of fascism and Nazism,» Gaidukevich emphasized. He called the actions of Latvian politicians «fighting the dead» cowardly. The deputy expressed confidence that in Belarus, despite tense relations, for example, with Poland, Polish monuments in the country would never be demolished. «We will never demolish monuments, because our country respects history and other peoples, countries,» he said. Gaidukevich added that the demolition of Soviet monuments in Europe will not end there. “We understand that monuments will still be demolished. I am convinced that this will happen,” the deputy said. He believes that the reason for such an attitude towards Soviet monuments in Europe lies, among other things, in the fact that European politicians are not independent, «they are under the influence of the United States, and it is beneficial for the United States to fan the conflict in Europe.»Aksenov supported the initiative to export the monument to the Liberators of Riga to Russia
