The fact of the transfer of such "cases" on the pretext of the Riga District Court being overloaded to the courts in remote towns has not escaped our attention. Aged veterans are thus being condemned to additional physical deprivations and suffering, new difficulties are being created for them in terms of the organization of defense and participation in the trials.

Our principled stand on the continuing trials in Latvia against war and military service veterans is well known. We are witnessing an obvious "political order," on the strength of which a retrospective force is being given to the laws, investigations are being conducted in a biased manner, and the antifascist soldiers are being presented as "occupiers," and the Hitlerites' accomplices as "freedom fighters."

The Russian side will continue to support firmly and consistently the veterans being prosecuted in the Latvian courts and to seek the removal of all the unwarranted charges brought against them.