Russian authorities summoned the Lithuanian Chargé d'Affaires in Moscow, Jolanta Tubaite, this Monday for consultations to convey a formal complaint regarding the measures adopted by the Lithuanian government to dismantle a cemetery where Soviet soldiers and officers are buried.
In an official note, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the diplomat was expressed an "energetic protest" against the "new and barbaric plans of the authorities to liquidate the cemetery in which Soviet citizens who died in the battles liberating Lithuania from the Nazis are buried."
The department headed by Russian diplomacy recalled that a similar situation occurred in April in the town of Siauliai, and described these episodes as part of a "campaign of desecration of the remains of combatants." "This is not ceasing but is intensifying," lamented the Ministry, alluding to the fact that the Lithuanian representative was also summoned that same month following the demolition of a funerary monument dedicated to Red Army soldiers.
At that time, the Russian Executive considered these actions to be "especially cynical" because they coincided with the proximity of the anniversary of the Soviet Union's Victory Day over Nazi Germany, a commemoration that Russia celebrates every May 9.
The Moscow authorities stressed at the time that the destruction, deterioration, or desecration of military graves, even when they are outside Russian borders, is "punishable," in accordance with current Russian laws.
According to data from the Russian Ministry of Culture, there are 160 graves of Soviet soldiers in Lithuania, all of them incorporated into the registry of cultural heritage assets of the Baltic country. After Lithuanian independence in the early 1990s, a process of removing statues and monuments linked to the Soviet period was launched.