Bulgaria’s far-left and far-right political forces have taken a united front with Russia against the demolition of the monument. The activists have camped at the monument’s canopy and started the vigil, which they promise to continue until “the threat to the monument is eliminated”. Activists promise to gather thousands within 30 minutes if the dismantling of the monument begins.
In March, the Sofia City Council decided that the mayor should request the government to remove the monument. On August 2, a government decision changed the status of the monument, allowing the Sofia Regional Government to manage the monument. It announced on August 17 that a plan for dismantling the monument had been prepared.
RFE/RL reports that the monument complex was built in 1954. Those who want it removed say the groups of sculptures depicting Bulgarian gratitude to victorious Soviet soldiers are a caricature of history and distort the truth about the repressive socialist regime created by the USSR that lasted until 1989. Therefore, it is not actually a monument to the liberators, but a monument to the occupiers.
The monument and its groups of sculptures have suffered from vandalism many times – they have been painted over and damaged.
Especially after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, it has become a place for confrontation between pro-Russian political forces and pro-Western Bulgarians.
On August 17, a group, possibly fans of the football team Levski, came to the monument, painted it and hammered a hole in the plaque with the inscription. Four of them were detained by the police.
The Kremlin’s mouthpiece TASS later announced that the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastirkin, had ordered the opening of a criminal investigation to identify and punish those responsible for the attack on the monument. News but notes that it is not clear on what basis the Russian state could prosecute Bulgarian citizens on Bulgarian territory. The monument is built according to the decision of the Bulgarian government on Bulgarian money.
2023-08-24 05:32:42
#Bulgaria #confrontation #plans #dismantle #monument #Soviet #army #Sofia
