On Tuesday, workers started dismantling the statues of Soviet World War Two soldiers in Vilnius’ Antakalnis Cemetery. The Russian Embassy in Vilnius called the removal of the monument a “barbaric mockery”.
The removal of the Soviet sculptures is “the culmination of the Lithuanian government’s fierce desire to destroy the memory of the heroes who, at the cost of their lives, liberated Lithuania and Europe from Nazism”, the Russian Embassy said.
“This barbaric mockery of the dead evokes only a feeling of deep contempt and justified indignation in every normal person,” it added.
On Tuesday, the dismantling of the monument to the Red Army soldiers started at Antakalnis Cemetery despite interim measures imposed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
The committee imposed the interim measures after it received a petition signed by several people who identified themselves as “ethnic Russians”.
It left the measures in place after Lithuania’s appeal. However, The Interior Ministry and municipal officials insist that the UN committee was misled by the arguments of the petitioners, who claim that the monument will be desecrated and the nearby remains reburied.
Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said that “the graves and tombstones will not be touched”, as the removal concerns only the “Soviet propaganda statues”.
The Russian Embassy has called on international and public organisations “to assess this demonstrative disregard for the decisions of the UN body”.
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