Polish ambassador to Russia files objection to monument removal

Poland's ambassador to Russia has submitted a diplomatic note to the Russian Foreign Ministry concerning the removal of monuments to Polish victims of repression, he told PAP on Monday.

The note concerned the removal of a monument near the eastern Russian city of Irkutsk to Polish victims of repression in the 1930s and another remembering Lithuanian victims.

"We submitted a note today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in relation to the removal of a symbolic gravestone that remembers Polish victims of political repression in Russia, as well as a cross next to it that remembered Lithuanian victims," Krzysztof Krajewski said. "We are connecting these two valuable and important sites because we do not separate victims according to nationality."

The ambassador highlighted that the Polish monument had been "funded by a Polish community organisation in 2015 with the consent of the local authorities."

"The removal and relocation (of monuments) to unknown sites raises our objection," he continued, adding that the note called for clarification of where the monuments had been moved to.