Latvian President Egils Levits. File photoMOSCOW, May 15.The President of Latvia, Egils Levits, in an address to the inhabitants of the country, supported the decision of the Riga City Council to demolish the monument to the Liberators of Riga. The Parliament of Latvia had previously suspended the clause of the intergovernmental agreement with Russia on the protection of monuments to Soviet soldiers, which allows the monument to the Liberators of Riga to be dismantled. On Wednesday, the police closed access to the monument, municipal services removed the flowers laid by May 9 with a tractor, and later residents of the city began to bring them again. On Thursday, the Latvian parliament allowed the demolition of the monument. On Friday, the Riga City Council voted in favor of the demolition, instructing the relevant agency to ensure the dismantling of the monument.The Riga City Council voted for the demolition of the monument to the liberators «In recent weeks, a decision has been made on the further fate of the object left by the Soviet Russian invaders in Pardaugava … This object of Russian propaganda should be dismantled. Therefore, the decision of the Riga City Council to dismantle it is correct. The toxic radiation of this object exceeds the scale of one local government Therefore, it would be important that the decision on its dismantling was made by the Saeima, removing all bureaucratic obstacles to the execution of the decision of the Riga City Council by a separate law,” said Levits. His video message is posted on the website lsm.lv. The Latvian president also announced a march «for the liberation of the country from all sorts of Soviet heritage» on May 20. Against the backdrop of Latvia's decision, Andrei Klimov, head of the Federation Council commission for the protection of state sovereignty, told RIA Novosti that Latvia needs to be «reasoned» by taking extremely tough measures, including economic ones. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called what is happening «an international outrage.» The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the occupation of the Baltic countries in 1940 by the USSR is out of the question. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that it considers the accession of the Baltic states to the USSR as consistent with the norms of international law of that time. According to the department, the term «occupation» cannot be used here, since there were no hostilities between the USSR and the Baltic states, and the introduction of troops was carried out on a contractual basis and with the express consent of the authorities existing in these republics. In addition, national authorities acted in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia throughout their stay in the Soviet Union (with the exception of the time of occupation by Germany during the Great Patriotic War).
Latvia wants to suspend agreement with Russia on monuments to soldiers
