A memorial for the victims of Soviet repressions was vandalised on the north-eastern outskirt of Minsk on Wednesday. The vandals broke about a dozen crosses, tore down memorial plaques and icons, and scratched a Nazi swastika on one of them. They also damaged the marble memorial bench donated by the U.S. people to Belarus and installed more than 10 years ago during President Bill Clinton’s visit to the country.

Research done by historians and archaeologists at the beginning of the 1990s indicated that tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed in this part of Minsk in the 1930s-1940s.

A special governmental commission said these people were the victims of Stalinist repressions.

The memorial complex has been vandalised several times before.