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		</div><p>Latvia will tear down a Soviet-era monument commemorating the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany, authorities said.</p>
<p>It comes a week after Estonia removed a similar landmark.</p>
<p>Police have erected a yellow fence to cordon off the area near the monument, which stands like a high-rise in downtown Riga’s Victory Park.</p>
<p>It has a 260-foot concrete spire with a Soviet star on top, with two groups of statues beside the edge of a pond.</p>
<p>The monument, built in 1985 while Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union, will be felled using machinery on Tuesday, said Janis Lange, the Latvian capital’s executive director.</p>
<p>He told a press conference it will be toppled without the use of explosives, according to Latvian television.</p>
<p>It was not immediately clear what would happen to the monument after it is taken down.</p>
<p>The concrete obelisk is part of a complex that includes two groups of statues — a band of three Red Army soldiers and on the other side a woman representing the “Motherland” with her arms held high.</p>
<p>The whole complex will be taken down.</p>
<p>Latvia, which shares a 133-mile border with Russia, has a large group of ethnic Russians living in the country.</p>
<p>On Russia’s annual Victory Day holiday on May 9, they gather in front of the monument to lay flowers with concerts also organised.</p>
<p>The event has caused controversy among people in Latvia, which since regaining independence in 1991 has become a member of Nato and the European Union.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, the Latvian Russian Union said it plans to stage a protest on Monday evening.</p>
<p>The group says it has gathered more than 10,000 signatures of people who are against removing the monument, the Baltic News Service said.</p>
<p>But Mr Lange told a press conference on Monday that the Riga City Council said it will not issue permission for them to hold a protest.</p>
<p>In May, Latvia’s parliament voted to pave the way for the demolition of the monument in the capital and the Riga City Council followed suit.</p>
<p>The Baltic countries have removed many monuments glorifying the Soviet Union or communist leaders.</p>
<p>In 2007, the relocation of a Second World War monument of a Red Army soldier in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, sparked days of rioting.</p>
<p>Last week, Estonia removed a Soviet-era monument with a tank on top outside the town of Narva in the Baltic country’s Russian-speaking east, and moved the tank replica to a war museum north of Tallinn.</p>
<p>Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have taken a hard-line stance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
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