MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/: Russia has taken fitting diplomatic demarches in Moscow and Riga after ‘blatant disrespectful’ actions by the Latvian capital’s authorities, who swapped Russian flags around Latvia’s capital with those of the Russian Olympic Committee, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on Wednesday.
"First of all, this constitutes blatant disrespect for Russia’s state symbols. That said, appropriate demarches were delivered in Moscow and Riga that pointed to the harmfulness of such inflammatory acts with regards to building bilateral relations," the diplomat stressed.
"It seems that our Latvian neighbors are doing their utmost to gain a foothold in the ranks of states that are unfriendly to Russia. If that is Latvia’s deliberate choice, we will draw our conclusions," she cautioned.
On May 24, Riga’s City Council said that Russia’s flags, which had been flying among those of other participating teams in the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship along the streets of Riga, were replaced with the Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) flags. The Russian Embassy in Latvia excoriated Riga’s local authorities for replacing Russia’s flags in the city with those of the ROC.
