By showing the crimes committed in Ukraine and Latvia, the true face of Russia can be revealed - Ukrainian ambassador to Latvia

RIGA - By showing the crimes committed in Ukraine and also in Latvia, the true face of Russia can be revealed, Ukrainian Ambassador to Latvia Oleksandr Mishchenko said on Monday at the conference on preventing the consequences of occupations.

He pointed out that the Russian government talks about its desire to free Ukraine from Nazism, but if rockets are fired at the population, what salvation can Russia talk about. Mishchenko mentioned that, for example, a person has been arrested in Moscow for singing a Ukrainian song.

"What is Nazism? For them, Nazism means everything that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not. Russians themselves are Nazis, however, using propaganda, they try to impose that they are liberators," said Ukraine's ambassador to Latvia.

He noted that historian Janis Riekstins' book about the crimes of the Soviet army in Latvia was published relatively recently. The book contains documents that have been kept secret for a long time.

The book tells about 54 soldiers who united in a group to be able to carry out criminal activities. The group raped a disabled person and a 15-year-old girl. According to the ambassador, the book is a documentary proof of the crimes committed by those who "supposedly" liberated Latvia from Nazism by introducing ''Rashism and Communism''.

He also addressed the issue of street renaming. Mishchenko pointed out that there are some forces that oppose it in order to hide the true face of Rashism and Communism. In the ambassador's opinion, culture is invoked to hide the faces of the true barbarians.

The ambassador emphasized that at the beginning of the Ukrainian war, Latvia supplied Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles Stinger and the whole nation continued to help as much as it could, while Germany forbade Estonia to supply Ukraine with Javelins.

"What happened and why is Germany now supplying tanks and various systems to Ukraine?! What has changed is that previously German society thought that Russia was a rich culture. Yes, there are also bandits and criminals somewhere, but they are somewhere far away," said Mishchenko, adding that the events in Bucha and Irpin have made everyone see what Russia really is.

Also, the ambassador rhetorically asked what else is needed by those countries that still do not help Ukraine and for them to act like Latvia in the first days of the war. In his address, the ambassador also mentioned the Pope in Rome, who said that he does not believe in the terrible crimes of the Russians, after which he received a lot of criticism and changed what he said, showing disrespect, and he cannot be compared to those people in Latvia who gave their last pair of gloves to the Ukrainians.

According to the ambassador, the Pope in Rome also associates Russia with the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and when the Pope is told about the atrocities in Ukraine, he does not believe it because he lives in a fog.

Mishchenko emphasized that everything that Latvia has started, starting with the dismantling of monuments and renaming of streets, is correct, because the true face of Russia must be shown. He emphasized that while others will think about whether the Russians are cruel or not, whether to supply weapons to Ukraine or not, the attacks will increase - more and more missiles will fly in the direction of Kyiv and the number of victims will increase

According to the ambassador, he does not believe that idiots and those who do not understand what they are doing work in politics. If the chairman of the municipal council of a city can say that Crimea is part of Russia, it does not mean that this person does not understand what he is talking about.

This, in the ambassador's opinion, allows to speculate that there is something in this person's personal file that prevents him from refusing Russia, and which shows that he is afraid of Russian power much more than of Latvia. Mishchenko expressed the position that this is a question for the security services of Latvia, because if a person so openly disregards the official position of the country, then one must ask what this person is actually doing.

The ambassador emphasized that in both Ukraine and Latvia, Russification was implemented using all possible tools. He rhetorically asked if anyone really believes that it will be possible to restore the identity of both Ukraine and Latvia only through democratic means. Mishchenko also mentioned the time when active discussions began about dismantling the monument in Victory Park, assuming that thousands of people would come to protest.

"But what actually happened? Nothing happened! If people in Kherson were ready to face the tanks with empty hands and fight for their identity, practically no one in Latvia showed an active protest, which means that it is not a memory or an identity, but a monument of occupation," said the ambassador, drawing attention to the fact that as soon as the government decided to act according to the law, the "sacred meaning" of the monument - free concerts and alcohol, was lost.