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Russia Criticizes NATO and EU over Monuments
The information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized NATO and the European Union for disrespecting history at a ceremony to place wreathes on plaques on the ministry headquarters memorializing ministry personnel and diplomatic personnel who lost their lives in World War II.
Speaking at that ceremony, Lavorv said that “The memory of the victors does not fade. That memory is sacred to us. Of course, we cannot but be dismayed at the attempts to treat that memory blasphemously, to abuse it and to rewrite history. Attempts to scoff at history are, unfortunately, becoming an element and instrument of foreign policy in individual states. Unfortunately, certain organizations, such as NATO and the European Union, are accommodating those efforts.”
Lavrov's comments reflect Russian displeasure with European support for Estonia's decision to relocate a collective soldiers' grave from downtown Tallinn to a military cemetery. Polish plans to begin dismantling Soviet-era monuments may have raised hackles at the Russian ministry as well. Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage Kazimierz Ujazdowski has announced a program for “symbols of the communist dictatorship to disappear from the cities and streets of Poland as alien to the Polish tradition.” Besides monuments, the program calls for changing street names.
Ujazdowski was careful to specify that the program would not entail disrespect or neglect for the graves of Soviet soldiers in the country. One of the first monuments to go under the program would likely be the monument to Polish-Soviet military brotherhood in Warsaw. Poland has expressed its support for Estonia in its relocation of the monument to the Liberator Soldier.
www.kommersant.com
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