In “Riga City Council Votes To Dismantle Soviet Victory Monument”, RFE/RL reports today that the city council of Riga, Latvia’s capital, voted yesterday to dismantle a controversial Soviet-era monument that most Latvians see as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s occupation of Latvia in1940 and its reoccupation of Latvia in 1944, rather than its ostensible purpose of commemorating the liberation of Riga and Latvia from Nazi Germany. Locals call it “Moscow’s Finger” (“Maskavats pirksts” in Latvian).
The city council’s move followed the Latvian legislature’s approval the day before of a bill allowing the city council to order the monument demolished. The city council’s vote was 39–13.
The monument was built between 1979 and 1985. In 1997 ultra-nationalists unsuccessfully tried to blow it up; two of them were killed during the explosion, and six others were imprisoned afterwards.
This year on Victory Day, May 9, Russians in Latvia gathered to lay flowers at the monument, and outrage was sparked when a video surfaced online showing city workers removing the flowers the next day. Police are currently restricting access to the monument.
Yesterday, Riga police reportedly arrested four people at an unauthorized protest against the city council’s decision. The protest was staged by members of Latvia's Russian minority.