MOSCOW, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia's upper house of parliament on Tuesday asked President Vladimir Putin to take counter-measures after Poland decided to remove hundreds of Soviet monuments in the country.
"The senators unequivocally expressed the opinion that such cynical and immoral actions of the Polish authorities cannot be left without consequences," Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said in a statement.
On July 17, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed amendments to a law banning the promotion of communism and ordering the removal of Soviet monuments in the country, including those commemorating the liberation of Poland from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in 1944-1945.
In response, Russian lawmakers proposed imposing sanctions on its parliamentarians, other individuals and legal entities that took part in creating the initiative.
According to the Federation Council statement, almost 500 monuments and memorials in Poland could be dismantled under the amendments.
The Federation Council said the amendments violated bilateral agreements reached by the two countries in 1992 and 1994, under which Polish authorities are obliged to protect and preserve memorial sites.
Poland, one of the former Warsaw Pact countries under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, is a member of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.
