“We sent a note to the Latvian Foreign Ministry demanding to prevent these revanchist plans of Ogre self-government and ensure the strict implementation of existing bilateral international legal agreements,” the Russian embassy said in a statement.
The diplomatic mission expressed hope for the prevalence of common sense and the prevention of the implementation of the "illegal and provocative initiative."
“We are extremely outraged by the decision of the Ogre Regional Duma to dismantle five Soviet memorials ... We are convinced that this undertaking has no moral, historical, let alone legal grounds,” the embassy added.
The Russian side recalled that any encroachment on the memorial structures of Russia, regardless of the justification, in Moscow will be considered as a gross violation by Riga of its obligations under the Agreement between the Government of Russia and Latvia of April 30, 1994 on the social security of military pensioners and members of their families.
In December, the Russian embassy in Latvia sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic with a demand to investigate an act of vandalism against a memorial to Soviet soldiers-liberators in Riga.