Russia plans to create a guard to protect soviet war memorials abroad

[Crvena zvezda]

Rest in Peace, by Order of Vladimir Putin
10 May 2007
A recent report says Moscow is hoping that a new corps of grave guards at its embassies will thwart attempts to tamper with Soviet war memorials.
[The Estonian government’s decision to move a memorial to Soviet war dead from the Tallinn city center to a military cemetery sparked rioting in the Estonian capital in late April and confrontations at the Estonian Embassy in Moscow in early May.

Since then, some Russian media have looked nervously at other non-Russian cities that have Soviet war memorials. One recent TV report has President Vladimir Putin authorizing new teams of workers for certain embassies to safeguard Soviet war graves.—TOL]

Source: Transitions Online: Rest in Peace, by Order of Vladimir Putin

Text of report by Russian Centre TV on 7 May

[Presenter] It emerged on Monday [7 May] that a draft decree to protect Soviet war graves abroad has been prepared in the [Russian] president's administration. According to the decree, a [Russian] representative office will be opened in a number a countries with the aim of preserving [Soviet] soldiers' graves and memorials. There are 14 such countries, one of which is Poland, which today confirmed its intention to pass a law to remove monuments dating from the socialist era.

[Correspondent] The Polish government is hasty in its denials. Draft legislation has already been issued from the Ministry of Culture to the [Polish] Sejm allowing the demolition of monuments dating from the socialist era. But what is meant here is not Soviet war memorials, but stone sculptures of Communist dictators. Today on one of Poland's radio stations, the Culture Minister announced on air: "We do not wish to dismantle memorials which were erected in memory of the Red Army and thereby show disrespect to Russian soldiers". In other words the Poles are indirectly condemning the Estonian example. But the facts prevent us from believing Warsaw's good intentions: in Krakow the memorial to Marshal Konev disappeared a long time ago. It was dismantled, and now all that is left of it is the pedestal. New perceptions arose as the times changed: Konev was then declared an occupant, and there is no guarantee that the Poles will not follow in the footsteps of the Estonians in rewriting history.

[Passage omitted: earlier reported statement from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.]

[Correspondent] Events over the past 20 years seem to indicate that some Europeans have a short memory. The city authorities of the Bulgarian town of Plovdiv twice attempted to dismantle the [Soviet] stone Alesha [memorial] and only the country's Supreme Court was able to save the Russian warrior.

In April this year the World Union of Hungarians collected signatures for the removal of the monument to Soviet soldiers from Freedom Square in Budapest.

After the monument to Soviet soldiers in [Berlin's] Treptow Park was removed for restoration in 2003, rumour had it that it would not return to its former place. But everything turned out well that time: the German authorities spent 1.5m euros on the [monument's] restoration.

Last Friday [4 May] the Russian Defence Ministry announced that a presidential decree was being prepared to protect [Soviet] war graves abroad. It should be signed by the end of May. A representative office will be opened in Russian embassies abroad consisting of four to six people and will deal with the protection of [Soviet war] graves and monuments. They will work in the main problematic zones: Poland, Hungary, Romania, Germany, the Czech Republic, China and the Baltic states. For these purposes 1m dollars will be spent every year.

[Unidentified Russian official] The creation of representative offices will not solve the problem. They can only solve the problem as to how fast we react; for example [they can] inform us of the situation to which we can then react quickly.

[Correspondent] In other words, it is not in the representative offices' power to protest or take steps against the authorities' actions. The main task is up to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which needs to conclude bilateral agreements on the protection of memorials. This will ensure a more or less firm guarantee of their protection.

[Passage omitted: previously reported facts concerning President Putin's meeting with the International Olympic Committee in the Kremlin today.]

Protestors damaged this Soviet war memorial in Budapest during riots last autumn.

[Leland Gaunt]

For these purposes 1m dollars will be spent every year

They should rather spend those money on rising pensions for the elder people.

[Whiteruthenian]

Originally Posted by Ed Gein

They should rather spend those money on rising pensions for the elder people.

This scandal is nothing but big hypocrisy. Look what these defenders do with remains on their own territory. And after that they whoop that Estonia is ruled by "Nazi vandals":

The Moscow News

Scandal Heats Up Over Missing Remains of WWII Pilots
By Oleg Liakhovich The Moscow News


The Moscow suburb of Khimki became the center of a storm in recent weeks amid a scandal over the remains of six war heroes that went missing after the local administration bulldozed the town's World War II memorial and burial site.

In late April, the administration of Khimki ordered the removal of graves and headstones of six World War II pilots as part of what they claimed was a "necessary road-widening project." Officials also said the site had become a gathering point for prostitutes who "desecrated the site."

However, the remains of the pilots have apparently disappeared, as the Russian media and activists failed to determine where they were taken.

The manner in which the graves were exhumed has also drawn scorn. Apparently, Khimki administrators decided to send a bulldozer and several Tajik workers with shovels to dig up the graves. The remains of the pilots were reportedly scattered before being taken away in an ambulance, not to be seen again. Meanwhile, Khimi officials said they did not know where the remains were, saying they might have been taken to a morgue at one of the nearby towns.

Officials say the scandal was instigated by a group led by Anatoly Baranov, a member of the Communist Party, who claim that the removal of the monument was conducted in order to free space for building an office building, and the pilots' remains were extracted carelessly and in secret.

Alexander Danilovsky, a deputy head of Khimki administration rebutted these claims, saying that the exhumation was conducted in broad daylight and with local TV news crews present. The official reburial ceremony was scheduled for May 6, Danilovsky said, however, once again refusing to disclose the present location of the remains.

Earlier, the issue of the Khimki reburial was raised during one of the sessions of the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament. Nationalist and communist legislators said that local officials were little better than vandals and that it was hypocritical to condemn Estonia while remaining silent on similar actions in Russia.

"The memory of our fellow countryman was made a mockery of," legislator Victor Alksnis said.

A protest rally by a Communist group was dispersed by the local police. The protesters later claimed that they were detained and beaten by plainclothes officers while returning from the demonstration.

A rally planned for May 9 was allegedly banned by the authorities.

[Leland Gaunt]

and that it was hypocritical to condemn Estonia while remaining silent on similar actions in Russia.

100% true. In the news and TV they kept silent about this disgraceful Chimki episode but still can't shut their mouths whinig about Estonian "ungrateful nazi supporters".

[Leland Gaunt]

For these purposes 1m dollars will be spent every year

Im sure good share of that money will end up in the pockets of certain group of people.