ATHENS

Bulgaria has started dismantling the Soviet Army Monument in the capital city of Sofia, local media reported on Tuesday.

Sofia Regional Governor Vyara Todeva said that the figures that were to be removed would be inventoried and transported to a place for safekeeping and that they would be put on display at the Museum of Socialist Art, according to the state-run BTA news agency.

Commenting on the move, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s (BSP) Kornelia Ninov said: “Every monument is a piece of history, and we erase a piece of history every time we remove a monument."

In a related development, a group of people, including lawmakers from BSP, took to the streets against the dismantlement of the monument.

Commenting on the move, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “The barbaric actions taken by the Bulgarian side have no justification or forgiveness. They look especially cynical in conditions of galloping growth of neo-Nazi sentiments in Europe itself.”

On Aug. 2, a government decision changed the status of the memorial complex built in 1954 from public state property to private state property. The move was seen as a first step toward going ahead with plans to remove the Joseph Stalin-era monument from its present location.

The 45-meter (148-foot) monument in the center of the capital, Sofia, was built by the former communist regime.