Russian Foreign Ministry Summons Latvian Ambassador Over Dismantlement of Soviet Monuments

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it summoned the Latvian ambassador, Maris Riekstins, over the dismantlement of Soviet monuments.

"On November 10, Latvian Ambassador in Moscow, Maris Riekstins, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. A strong protest was expressed to the head of the Latvian diplomatic mission in connection with the ongoing policy of state vandalism in Latvia of dismantling Soviet memorials. We regard this barbarism to be in line with the official Riga on glorification of Nazism," the ministry said.

The ministry also underscored the unacceptability of the "the ambassador's public anti-Russian statements, in particular, that Riga is dismantling monuments of Soviet soldiers-liberators because Russia's special military operation in Ukraine is a continuation of the war against fascism in the middle of the last century."

The ambassador was also informed that steps taken by the Latvian authorities, aimed at creating obstacles in the work and possibly expropriating the property of the Moscow Cultural center in Riga and a sanatorium in Jurmala, are illegal.

The ministry stressed that all responsibility for these and other hostile actions falls entirely on the Latvian side, and Moscow reserves the right to take retaliatory steps, including asymmetric ones.