Poland has dismantled four Soviet monuments that were erected in memory of Red Army soldiers who died fighting against Nazi troops in 1945 in Byczyna, Bobolice, Glubczyce, and Staszow. In front of the dismantled monument in Glubczyce, southern Poland, President of the Institute of National Remembrance Karol Nawrocki said that the monuments represent enslavement, not liberation. “This monument is a monument of lies, where the winners humiliate the victims. “Soviets did not bring freedom in 1945, they brought a new enslavement,” he said.

According to Russian laws, those who remove Soviet Army monuments outside of Russia face up to three years in prison.