Riga, we have a problem. I get the whole "we hate Soviet Russia" part but praising the Nazi SS in the process is revolting.
The remembrance ceremonies at Riga's Freedom Monument and the Lutheran cathedral are hugely divisive because they pay tribute to those who fought alongside the Nazis in a vain attempt to halt the Red Army's reconquest of the Baltic state in 1944.
While Russians accuse the Latvians of Nazi revivalism and Jewish leaders protest at attempts to "rewrite history" and belittle the Holocaust, the veterans, all pushing 90, and Latvian nationalists insist they are entitled to remember a famous 1944 battle in which the Latvian legion comprising two divisions conscripted into Hitler's Waffen-SS linked up for the only time in the war to try to thwart Stalin.
The 16 March commemoration, briefly declared a national holiday in the 1990s by a nationalist government, was banned by the Riga city council on security grounds, but the courts overruled the ban on Monday, raising fears of ugly scenes, with clashes predicted between Latvian and Russian youths who regularly hijack the event.
