MOSCOW, August 24./TASS/. By tearing down the Monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders, the Latvian authorities may trigger a rift in society, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Sputnik radio station on Wednesday.
"They run the risk of igniting a full polarization of society within their own country. In full. [We are] not just [talking about] a temporary disturbance of the peace, of course not, but pitting people against each other and making it impossible for any harmonious existence among the citizens of their own country, who know history, who remember, and who have the history of their families," Zakharova cautioned. "In spite of this, they will continue down the road that they are now going, it's their mission," Zakharova said.
According to the diplomat, the Latvian authorities won’t stop here. "These are regimes, people who were picked to carry out precisely this mission, to dismantle historical memory. They are the ones who have already rewritten the textbooks, revised the documents, and they control public opinion among the younger generations," she specified.
"The veterans, fighters and workers on the home front, the concentration camp victims have by and large passed on now, and only a handful remain, so this generation is gone. The only thing left is the visual monuments that recount, retell, and carry on the information on this historical track," the diplomat explained.