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Latvian minister: Soviet monuments were tools of occupation

2024-02-14 17:28:15, Kosova & Bota CNA

Latvia's culture minister, one of the officials Russia has put on its most-wanted list, says Soviet monuments in the Baltic countries were tools that served the regime. According to him, the fact that Moscow announced this measure to him, shows that the decisions of the Latvian authorities, to remove the Soviet monuments from protection as heritage, are the right decisions.

Soviet-era monuments, the destruction of which the Kremlin says constitutes "desecration of historical memory" were tools for the occupation of the Baltic states, said Minister Simonas Kairys, whom Moscow put on its most-wanted list on Tuesday.

Based on the data of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police included the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, the Minister of Culture of Lithuania and former Lithuanian MPs in the list of most wanted persons.

Politicians from the Baltic countries risk arrest only if they cross the Russian border. Declaring them "wanted" is unlikely to have any practical consequences.

Minister Kairys said his country had removed heritage protection for Soviet monuments as they were "used to establish the regime".

"We removed the protection as heritage to the symbols of the Soviet monuments because they were not used as a work of art in the period of the Soviet occupation, but to establish the regime and the occupation," he said.

After Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania removed Soviet-era monuments, including monuments to Soviet soldiers killed during World War II.

All three countries are members of the European Union and NATO, and their relations with Moscow have deteriorated significantly since the start of the war.

Minister Kairys said his inclusion on the list showed he was "on the right track" and said the allegations were "nonsense".

"This fact shows that I am on the right track. It also shows that these accusations are unfounded, crazy," he added.

He said it showed Russia still believed it had power over the three countries that were part of the Soviet communist bloc after World War II until they gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

"This means that Russia still believes that it has power in independent sovereign democratic countries like Lithuania, but simply saying that is nonsense," he stressed.

The Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, wrote on the X social network that her inclusion in the list was an attempt to make her remain silent about her support for Ukraine./ VOA