Latvia’s annual and highly controversial rally in Riga was held on March 16 with more than 1,000 people marching to commemorate the Latvians who fought in Germany’s Waffen-SS divisions against the Soviet Union during World War II.

Held every year since 1990, many politicians warn the rally increases tensions between Latvia and Russia.

To coincide with the March 16 rally, the country’s Russian-speaking minority and Jewish Latvian community also took to the streets to protest.

In previous years, marches have been marred by clashes between participants and protestors. This year, there was a heavy police presence in order to prevent similar incidents.

Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma had also requested that no member of her centre right government attend this year’s march. Last year, she forced the then environment minister, Einars Cilinskis, to resign after he joined the march.

Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, said: “Anyone who fought for a Nazi victory should not be honoured in the centre of a European capital”.

neurope.eu