MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Tearing down the monument to Soviet Army Soldiers in Riga will come as another act of state vandalism and triumph of Russophobia, the chairman of the Russian State Duma’s committee for international affairs, Leonid Slutsky, told TASS on Thursday.

"The passing of such a law is obviously the ‘tribute to the memory’ of the Latvian Legion of Waffen SS, whose veterans and their descendants are still marching down the streets of Riga every year on March 16," the politician said.

"Revenge-seeking, glorification of Nazi criminals, rewriting of history, the fight against the memory of liberators, have regretfully become the distinctive feature of the Baltic states’ policy over the recent years," Slutsky noted. "This is their contribution to the ‘anti-Russia’ project," he stated.

On Thursday, the Latvian Saeima passed in the second, final, reading the bill suspending an agreement signed with Russia on memorials and monuments. In particular, this will allow to tear down the monument to Soviet Army soldiers in Riga.