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Russia keeps quiet as Baltics remember Stalin's deportations

Flowers are placed in front of the Freedom monument in Riga, the Latvian capital, right, to commemorate the people who were deported to Siberia in 1949.

On the 60th anniversary of the start of the mass deportations carried out by the Soviet Union under Stalin, memorial services were held in the Baltic republics to commemorate tens of thousands sent to Siberia in an effort to eradicate opposition to the communist takeover of their countries.

The repression, launched on March 25, 1949, remains a sensitive issue in relations with Russia, which has never acknowledged the Soviet action as a crime. The Russian Foreign Ministry made no mention of the anniversary yesterday.

Read entire article at Times (UK)