The Red Army statue, informally dubbed 'Alyosha' was removed from its pediment, making the gun-toting figure briefly resemble a paratrooper as he soared into the air – 'soared' may be overstating it – and was lowered by degrees to terra firma.
Like other dismantled Soviet monuments, which are considered to be potentially of artistic or historic value, Alyosha will be handed over to the Latvian Occupation Museum whole, though his ultimate fate remains to be seen.
There are as yet no plans to replace the figure with anything else.
