Latvian Ministry of Justice has suggested four possible solutions on how to remove the monument dedicated to the Soviet Army from Victory Park in Riga, as Latvijas Radio was told by the ministry’s parliamentary secretary, Minister of Justice Jānis Bordāns’ advisor Andris Vītols on 14 April.
Following an order from politicians to provide solutions for the Victory Monument issue, the ministry’s representatives concluded that for most people in Latvia this monument is unacceptable, it basically splits society, and so the state has a duty to act.
According to Vītols, the Ministry of Justice has come up with four options. First, the ministry offers to check if Russia has breached its obligations in preserving and maintaining the 110 Latvian places of commemoration in Russia. If Russia does not maintain them and therefore does not follow the agreement, it may not be binding for Latvia, the ministry explained.
The second option is terminating the agreement due to the war, in which Russia is a participant.
The third option includes re-interpreting Section 13 of the agreement signed by Latvia and Russia in 1994, specifically if the agreement even covers this particular monument. Latvia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far stressed that this article does cover this monument. However, the Ministry of Justice ‘is not in a hurry to agree’ with this view, said Vītols.
The fourth option proposed by the ministry includes moving the monument to some other place in Latvia. The final decision is in the hands of politicians, said Vītols.
Following the war Russia started in Ukraine, the question if a monument dedicated to the Soviet Army has any place in Latvia became a hot topic among politicians in this country.
Saeima’s Foreign Affairs Committee reached an agreement that the Ministry of Justice will work on possible solutions. On 30 March the committee met with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who explained that Latvia’s obligations in regards to the monuments are covered in one of four agreement packages, which also covered the exit of Russian army from Latvia in 1994.
This week the monument complex in Victory Park was declared unsafe. This is why the municipal administration fenced it off.
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Four options proposed for removal of monument from Victory Park in Riga
