The car of the Investigative Committee of Russia. Archival photo MOSCOW, April 23 Investigators of the RF Investigative Committee will give a legal assessment of the desecration of the monument to Soviet soldiers in the Lithuanian city of Palanga, which was doused with paint, according to the department’s Telegram channel. The Lithuanian Police Department in a daily report reported that the monument Soviet soldiers in Lithuanian Palanga were doused with paint, a woman was detained for damaging the fence of the Russian embassy in Vilnius.Russia demanded to stop the dismantling of five memorials in Latvia «Investigators will give a legal assessment of the actions of vandals in Lithuania, who desecrated the monument to Soviet liberators in the center of the city of Palanga, flooding it with paint. As part of the criminal case, the Investigative Committee of Russia will establish all the circumstances of these events and persons involved to committing a crime,» the report says. As Sputnik Lithuania reported, cases of vandalism against Soviet monuments became more frequent after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. A large-scale anti-Russian campaign has unfolded in Lithuania. For example, in Kaunas they are going to draw up a «black list» of objects and places that are associated with the USSR and Russia, and a separate list of «correct» historical figures, whose names are going to be preserved in the history of the city. The Russian Embassy in Lithuania called what is happening in the Baltic republic «barbaric and blasphemous» actions aimed at inciting hatred and fear in the country. The Vice Speaker of the Seimas of Lithuania, Andrius Mazuronis, earlier called for a temporary refrain from decisions on Soviet monuments, since the emotional public background is especially tense in connection with the events in Ukraine. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine 24 February. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.» According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of March 25, the main tasks of the first stage were completed — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the start of the next phase of the special operation.
