RIGA, Latvia — Veterans from a Latvian World War II SS division and their nationalist backers marched through Riga on Friday, angering the country's large Russian-speaking minority and drawing a rebuke from Moscow.
The marchers say their fight was for Latvian freedom against the Soviet Red Army after deportations under Stalin.
About a hundred counterdemonstrators, mostly Russian speakers, watched in silence as several hundred gray-haired veterans and young nationalist supporters walked past them through the city center.
Russia's Foreign Ministry called the SS veterans "Hitler's henchmen" and said the "odious" march was an attempt to rewrite history.
(Reuters)