A concrete column in Latvia’s capital which stirred controversy for years has been taken down as onlookers cheered and applauded.
The obelisk – the centrepiece of a monument marking the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany which occupied the Baltic states in World War Two – was inbuilt 1985 when Latvia was nonetheless a part of the USSR.
The construction, made up of 5 spires with three Soviet stars on the high, was between two teams of statues – a band of three Red Army troopers, and a lady representing the “Motherland” together with her arms within the air.
It stood practically 80 metres (262ft) excessive within the centre of Riga earlier than it was toppled and crashed into a close-by pond within the metropolis’s Victory Park.
Heavy equipment had been seen behind a inexperienced fence forward of its elimination. The statues had been earlier taken away.
Latvia’s overseas minister Edgars Rinkevics tweeted: “Latvia takes down one of the symbols of the Soviet occupation in Riga. Closing another painful page of the history and looking for better future.”
The obelisk has been controversial since Latvia regained independence in 1991 and ultimately turned a part of NATO and likewise a member of the European Union.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February has led to authorities in a number of japanese European nations dashing up the elimination of symbols from their earlier communist eras.
Latvia’s parliament voted to approve the demolition of the monument in May, and the Riga City Council adopted go well with.
Ethnic Russians make up about 25% of Latvia’s inhabitants.
Source: information.sky.com”