RIGA (Sputnik) – The mayor of Latvia's capital city Riga, Nils Usakovs, expressed his gratitude to Riga citizens who mostly ignored the parade of Waffen-SS veterans and their supporters quietly held Monday morning.
"Some 1,000 people took part in the March 16 demonstration near the Freedom Monument today. It is about 0.14 percent of Riga's population. Thank you very much, 99.86 percent of Riga's citizens!" Usakovs said on his Facebook page.
In protest, anti-fascist activists, dressed in white uniforms, called for a "disinfection" of the area around the monument that they claimed was tainted by what they term the "Nazi disease."
The march has been held annually since 1998.
Russian Foreign Ministry human rights ombudsman Konstantin Dolgov called the parade a cynical comment on the memory of millions of World War II victims.
