Law enforcement officer at the monument to the Liberators of RigaMOSCOW, Aug 23Many people were detained during the protest against the demolition of the monument to the Liberators of Riga, some were detained while talking to the press, the LSM portal reports, citing a journalist broadcasting from the scene. «Hundreds of people gathered at the fence in Victory Park — some of them protested against the demolition monument. To push back the protesters, the police used force — many people were detained,» the portal says. The exact number of detainees is not given. /wp-content/uploads/2022/08/f7bfbb51212b7af80d6c8af62b98c15c.jpg» />The authorities of Narva consider the decision to dismantle the T-34 monument tank illegalThe Latvian parliament previously suspended the clause of the intergovernmental agreement with Russia on the protection of monuments to Soviet soldiers, which allowed the monument to the Liberators of Riga to be dismantled. The police closed access to the monument, the municipal services removed the flowers laid by May 9 with a tractor, and later the residents of the city began to bring them again. The Latvian Parliament allowed the demolition of the monument. The Riga City Council voted for the demolition, instructing the specialized agency to ensure the dismantling of the monument. Work on the dismantling of the monument began on August 23, the day before, during preparations for the demolition, the police detained at least six people out of fifty protesters. 2 million people live in Latvia. More than 220 thousand of them are non-citizens. These are permanent residents of the country, whose ancestors arrived in the republic after 1940, when Latvia became part of the USSR. Non-citizens have limited rights — they cannot hold a number of positions, as well as participate in elections and referendums. To obtain Latvian citizenship, they need to go through the naturalization procedure — pass an exam in the Latvian language and history. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that the shameful phenomenon of «statelessness» that persists in European countries deserves active action to eliminate it. All three sculptures of the monument to the Liberators were dismantled in Riga
