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Latvia’s legislature passes bill that opens way to knock down monuments to Soviet soldiers

Rihards Kols indicated that Latvia "will continue to fulfill its international obligations regarding burials and cemeteries"

Monument to Soviet soldiers in Riga Alexander Welscher/picture alliance via Getty Images

Monument to Soviet soldiers in Riga

© Alexander Welscher/picture alliance via Getty Images

VILNIUS, May 12. /TASS/. The Latvian Saeima passed the final reading of a bill that suspends an agreement with Russia regarding monuments, it said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the legislation that potentially allows demolition of the monument to Soviet soldiers in Riga.

"The changed geopolitical conditions <...> mean that Latvia can’t and won’t be bound to preserve <...> monuments to the Soviet occupation," said Rihards Kols, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima. However, he indicated that Latvia "will continue to fulfill its international obligations regarding burials and cemeteries".

The agreement will be suspended from May 16, the parliament said.

Earlier, Kols also noted that the adoption of this bill would eliminate "all legal obstacles to the stopping the protection of [Soviet] memorials, <...> and this will pave the way for their dismantling or relocation." He said that concerns the monument to Soviet Army soldiers that liberated Soviet Latvia and Riga from Nazi invaders, which stands in the Latvian capital.

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