A Riga City Council press release points out that over the month since the posters in support of Ukraine have been installed in Riga, they have already been damaged 24 times. The largest and most expensive billboards have also been damaged several times, including damaging the structures of the billboards. The damaged posters are being promptly restored and the damage repaired, said Ineta Zalāne, Project Manager of the Municipality's Culture Projects and Public Events Department.
Jānis Tirziņš, Vecmīlgrāvis Neighborhood Coordinator, said that recently in Vecmīlgrāvis some individuals have been tearing, scribbling on, and damaging the poster poles on which the posters in support of Ukraine have been placed.
Since mid-February, symbols supporting Russian aggression on the corners of houses and under the windows of apartments have also been seen more frequently. The cases are becoming more frequent, the Riga Municipal Police also confirmed.
This year, 49 proceedings have been initiated for expressing support for Russian military aggression, compared to 173 proceedings in the whole of last year.
On a monthly average, the number of proceedings initiated by the police this year has increased by 38% compared to last year, representatives of the State Police and the Riga Municipal Police told the City Council.
Police representatives confirmed that these crimes are receiving increased attention and that several pro-Russian aggression vandals have been caught in recent weeks and have been getting harsher punishment. The most prominent case is the operational capture of the suspects responsible for the burning of the Museum of the Occupation.
The Occupation Museum could already be compiling its own statistics. Apart from the "Molotov cocktail" in the Director's office, various incidents occur daily. The 'Corner House' where part of the exhibition is located had its windows smashed nearly two months ago, the guest book has Z's drawn on it, donation boxes have been stolen, water taps have been broken in the toilets, and recently someone kicked in the partition glass in the museum premises.
"There are visitors who try to challenge our guides to discussions. This is not unusual or new," said Ziedonis Grigorjevs, head of the housekeeping department of the Latvian Museum of the Occupation.
The State Police also said that the number of incidents had increased, but not dramatically. This is explained by the date of Putin's re-election. The State Police pointed out that unfortunately, the perpetrator of several incidents tends to be the same person, sometimes a person who has already been punished.
At the same time, the police pointed out that public participation has not diminished and, thanks also to bystanders, it is often possible to catch the perpetrators.
