(Riga) Latvia demolished a Soviet-era monument in Riga on Thursday, in accordance with legislation put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine, and despite protests from the Baltic state’s Russian minority .
Posted at 7:19
Demolition machines were used to remove the 79-meter-high World War II memorial, according to an AFP journalist present on the spot, a monument which had become a rallying point for Kremlin supporters in Latvia.
Latvia, like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, is part of the European Union and NATO and has positioned itself resolutely in support of Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
The monument was built between 1979 and 1985 to commemorate the victory of the Soviet army over Nazi Germany.
Every year, thousands of Russians in Latvia who make up about 30% of the population gather on May 9 to commemorate the 1945 victory.
But most Latvians perceive this date as the start of a nearly 50-year Soviet occupation that ended in 1991.
Almost all Soviet-era monuments and plaques, except those in military cemeteries, were removed in 1991, with the Riga monument protected by a 1994 treaty between the Republic of Latvia and the Russian Federation. Russia.
In May, the Latvian parliament voted to amend this treaty, which deprived the monument of legal protection.
In 1997, a group of activists tried to demolish the monument with dynamite but the explosion went off prematurely, killing two people.
Dismantling debates resumed immediately after the Russian attack on Ukraine, particularly after the discovery of mass graves in Boutcha, near Kyiv.