Latvian public organizations want Jokhar Dudayev street in Riga renamed

Latvian public organizations of the Russian-speaking residents and World War II veterans have sent an open letter to the Riga Duma governing body requesting Jokhar Dudayev street be renamed.

The letter was signed by the Russian Society in Riga, the Society of Leningrad blockade survivors, the Veteran Association of anti-Hitler coalitions, in total six members of the Coordination Council of Latvian public organizations.

One of the streets in the Latvian capital was named after Chechen President Jokhar Dudayev posthumously. The street's former name was the Alley of Cosmonautics.

The authors of the letter say that there is no connection between Riga and Dudayev. But the point of the letter is that no street in Riga must be named after "the founder of the Chechen terrorism." According to the authors of the letter the criminal structure set up by Dudayev "brought about the deaths of tens of thousands people", "it bears the responsibility for the tragedies in Budyonovsk and Kizlyar, explosions of the apartment houses in Moscow". They also point out that Dudayev's regime "was established with the assistance of international terrorist organizations including the notorious Al-Qaeda." That is why the request to rename Jokhar Dudayev's Street in Riga is being put forward on the day when the whole world is commemorating the victims of the international terrorism.

The residents of that region of the Latvian capital had already made several requests to rename the street. But to no avail.

Political observers express believe that this time the Riga Duma, taken over last year by the left-wing social democrats and parties of the Union for Human Rights (ZaPTCHEL) in Latvia, will not put a deaf ear to the opinion of the public organizations representing the Latvian national minorities.