Russian Embassy Expects Germany to Respond to Desecration of Soviet Memorial

The Russian Embassy in Berlin expects the German authorities to give a legal evaluation of a recent attempt to desecrate the Soviet War Memorial in central Berlin's Tiergarten park, Denis Mikerin, a spokesman for the diplomatic mission, said Tuesday.

BERLIN (Sputnik) – On Monday, German media reported that the nation's authorities had detained a 41-year-old man shouting anti-Russia and Nazi slogans near the memorial after attempting to desecrate it.

"Against the backdrop of the incident related to the Soviet military memorial in Tiergarten, the Russian Embassy in Germany is taking all the necessary steps to ensure that German authorities give a legal evaluation of the incident as promptly as possible," Mikerin said.

The embassy official added that the person responsible for the incident should suffer severe punishment.

Generally, there is respect for Soviet military burial grounds and memorials in Germany, and rare cases of desecration of these sites are related to individuals with certain psychological disorders, the spokesman added.

The Soviet Union constructed the memorial in Tiergarten in 1945 to commemorate the thousands of Soviet servicemen killed during the Berlin operation of the World War II.